02.25.12

It all happened so fast. And quite honestly, stopped me in my tracks.  It started off with a simple email. “Welcome to Melbourne” read the subject. It was short. Sweet. Right to the point. And there was something different about it. A good something different. I took a moment and responded, “sure, would love a city tour. When are you free?”

Between noon and one he was picking me up. Suddenly I was nervous. Like, whoa. The elevator ride took me forever. And then suddenly he was there. And I was next to him. Butterflies in my stomach and all.

He drove me to his favourite beach. We sat on the sand, talked, and talked, and swam, and talked, and he got burnt. I did not. Sunscreen FTW. He made me smile. Big. Huge, really. Like so much so my cheeks hurt at the end of the day.

We then went to his favourite fish n’ chips store and ate a late lunch looking out over the harbour towards Melbourne. Everything had been good. Dare I say “perfect”? No. It wasn’t perfect. I still had no idea if he liked me. In fact, I had ruled him out to be a ridiculously-nice-(and-funny)-guy-helping-a-foreign-girl-out. 

A beer on a patio (my treat. to return his lunch treat) later. We were pulling onto the side street near my apartment. I paused for a moment. A kiss? No. There were no signs he liked me. And I gathered my beach towel. My broken flip flops. Thanked him for the day. And was gone.

I had literally walked through my door when my phone rang. “Hey.” Hey. “I can’t wait to see you again. So I’m coming back.” Dot dot dot. “KIDDING. You have my wallet.” Asshole. And holy shit, I’ll be right down. Just drive around the block and I’ll bring it to you.

The moment I stepped outside I saw him walking towards me. Walking? That’s weird. Here’s your wallet. “Thanks.” And then ten minutes later, which seemed like ten hours, he says, “okay. I better get going.”

Pause. Break. OHMYGOD I WANT TO KISS HIM. And then here is the part I should skip, but to show you I am not kidding when I say, I AM THE MOST AWKWARD PERSON EVER. This shit went down:

Me: Can I have a hug?  ((I KNOW! I KNOW! WHO AM I?! WHO DOES THAT? UGH!)
Him: *smiling* yesssss

And boom. Or as he’d say, bamm. He kissed me. And that kiss? Our first kiss? Just felt right. I wasn’t nervous. Or giddy. Or light headed. It was just him, and me, and a kiss. A very good kiss, I might add.

“I’ve wanted to do that all day.” In my head I was all like WHAT THE HELL, I HAD NO IDEA. But to him I just smiled. And kept smiling as we said goodbye. And then kept smiling in the elevator up to my apartment floor.

And am still smiling now.