Here’s a true story of my first real romance. Not a factual account of writing my first romance. But my very own real-life romance. Did I mention it’s true? Oh, yes. Yes, I did.
It’s short and it’s sweet and it’s on Ali Crean’s, All The Things In Between Blog.
I was nineteen and it was the summer of…quite a while ago. At the time I was one of those shy, studious, responsible types. Okay, I’ll just spit it out—I was a nerd. There, I said it. And sadly, I didn’t have a boyfriend. To be honest, I’d never had a boyfriend. And I imagined it would be rather nice if I did.
One Saturday night, I was at a nightclub dancing with friends and I noticed this guy standing on the sidelines staring at me. Because I wasn’t used to being focussed on in such an intense manner, I surreptitiously looked behind me to see if he was checking out some hot chick who was dancing behind me. Nope. Turns out his laser stare was in fact directed at me. Wow. I may or may not have wiggled my hips a little more vigorously at that point.
He came over and I got a good close look at him. Holy hell! Tall, built, blond, with an incredible smile and gorgeous green eyes that were the color of the sea in some exotic locale that I had never personally visited. I have a thing for green eyes by the way. It’s quite a serious thing. Anyhoo, he was looking at me in this strange way, like I was his long lost someone-or-other. (I’ll explain more about this later.) So we talked. I said some stuff. He said some stuff. No idea what; I was too busy staring into the depths of his sea greens. Luckily, I did manage to comprehend that he’d asked me to have lunch with him in thirty-seven hours. He didn’t word it like that of course, but I was counting.
So now I’m going to get to the good bit. I’ll skip over lunch because you know, more talking and staring into eyes while desperately trying not to drip spaghetti sauce down my chin. We ended up in the park next to my University. I was on a break between lectures, so that was the obvious place to go. We found a lovely spot under this huge tree, but not long after, it started to rain. Everyone else got up and made a mad dash for shelter. Gorgeous Green Eyes took my hand and pulled me up. And it was like some kind of electrical current ran between us. It sizzled up my arm and popped me right in the chest. I have no idea where he got popped; I never asked. We both stopped and just stared at each other. Now, I’d read about this phenomenon (electrical currents, not staring) in romance novels. But I’d never believed it was real until that moment. And so I, studious-nerd-person, suddenly pulled out a husky voice from…I don’t know where, and said, “So maybe we could just stay right here.” And Mr Electric was right on board with that plan.
Hands linked, we slowly lowered ourselves to the ground, and before my butt could say, “Hi there big ol’ tree root,” he was kissing me.
Oh my, I can barely find the words.
It was the most incredible thing I’d experienced in the not quite couple of decades I’d spent on the planet. It was just the two of us all alone in the park; sheltered by the thick canopy of leaves, rain pouring down around us. He kissed me and kissed me for such a wondrously long time. There were fireworks and thunder and lightning. Oh wait, that was the storm. But honestly, it was very, very good. I felt like I was floating, slightly delirious and generally going out of my mind.
When I finally ran into my microbiology prac class, my friends descended upon me en masse. They quizzed me about what the heck I’d been doing, all the while brushing their hands over my person. I wondered for a split-second if I was looking particularly sexy that day, since all of a sudden everyone seemed to be touching me inappropriately. However, I realized what was going on when they started picking twigs and bits of grass out of my hair. So while we went through the monkey-grooming ritual, I told them I’d been lying in the park working on my tan. I don’t think they believed me for a moment. Perhaps because it was pouring with rain? Or maybe it was the bee-stung lips that gave me away? Hey, bees hang out in parks, don’t they?
Anyway, Lip Lock and I spent seven wonderful days together. He was visiting from another country and was on holidays for only one week. We never did anything more than kiss and you know, roll about in the grass and stuff. What? I hear you screech. I know, I know. Remember me? Shy, responsible person. I wanted my first time to be with someone who would stick around. Don’t worry; when I think about it, I feel like kicking myself upside down, too.
At the end of the week, he…wait for it…asked me to marry him. Well, he didn’t exactly ask me. It was more like he told me how it was all going to go down. He planned to go back home, find someone to manage his business and then he would come back and make me his wife. It’s lucky he didn’t ask because by that point I was incapable of any sort of response. My brain had totally short-circuited. What? How? Why? Are you freaking crazy?!
But, here’s the reason I believe he asked, ah, I mean told—whatever. It’s something I promised to explain when I told you he was looking at me all weird-like in the nightclub. Turns out, that when he was a boy, his grandpa had a calendar in his work shed. You know, the kind of calendar ol’ Pops would keep out there so grandma wouldn’t know about it? Apparently, it featured a woman from a different country each month. And what I’m guessing is, they weren’t wearing their national costumes. So when a younger version of Tall Blond and Let’s Get Married saw one particular woman on the calendar, he said to himself, “When I grow up, I want to marry a woman who looks like that.” And lo and behold, I looked just like Miss July. So he probably fell in love with my long, curly hair. Perhaps my bushy eyebrows? Not so much my winning personality.
To wrap up this short and sweet summer memory of mine, I have to tell you that, no, I did not marry this man. However, sometimes—on the odd occasion—I find myself wondering if he’s kissing someone the way that he kissed me. *Sigh*
Link to the post on Ali Crean’s blog:
And if you like book reviews, check out the rest of Ali’s blog. Her reviews are amazing and they totally CRACK ME UP! This chick be funny, peeps.
