Just One Kiss

I honestly can't remember her face, to save the life of me. I remember she was a brunette, with a voluptuous figure, and I remember she wore heels. I remember she wore an unusual vanilla musk perfume that reminded me of a scratch-n-sniff Sesame Street Cookbook I had as a child.

I met her during the winter break in my second year of college. I can't even remember her name, but I remember I met her in a pool hall in Aurora. It was an all night place, designed for people too young to drink. It was very bright, and I remember there were always a lot of Asian kids in there, perfecting their bank shots and making fun of the Americans in a language we couldn't understand.

But we still spent many weekends there, out in the suburbs, and it was on one of those weekends I met her.

She was playing on a table next to ours, and we made eye contact several times. One of the girls who was with my group of friends noticed the exchange, and prodded me to do something.

To be honest, I wasn't very confident at the time. Although I had sufficiently rebounded from my first real heartbreak (by causing another one� but that's a different story), I still hadn't polished my mojo to the chome-and-starshine gleam it is today. But my friend persisted, finally walking over to her and taking her by the hand and leading her to me.

We chatted awkwardly, but in the end I left with her phone number, and we spent the next three weeks of evenings together, watching movies, playing pool and talking. And talking.

I fell in love with her.

But in that three weeks, we shared no real physical contact. There was no kiss, other than a peck on the cheek when we parted. An occasional friendly hug might ensue, but that was as far as anything progressed.

To make matters worse, I was on a deadline. She went to school out of state, at Tulane. And in just a few days, she was leaving for New Orleans.

I decided I'd press the issue. If she was interested in anything further then our friendship, I had to know now, before it got any worse. I was convinced she wanted more, though. Why else did she blow off all her old high school friends to spend her entire winter break with me?