Saturday, August 23, 2008

A Story for Sunday- Trois

Continued from here. More people's stories are at SOS headquarters.
This has been a long and dragged out story, but if you are getting impatient, just remember I waited 4 months in real time to get this far. It's December 27, and I'm heading off to Montreal again, to try to figure out what this relationship really is.

The day of the trip, the weather was not delightful. My parents drove me up to the airport early because there was a snowstorm and it took double the time to travel to Salt Lake. Once we got there, we found out the flights were all delayed because of the storm. We had to wait about an hour later than the scheduled time for me to depart. I was still young and fearless. I got on the plane and flew to St Louis where there was a pileup of late flights coming in from storm areas. My next flight was already gone, so I was scheduled out on a later flight. More waiting. We flew out to New York. When we arrived, the wind was too strong to land. We circled until we had to go to Connecticut to refuel. There we waited but couldn't leave the plane since we could take off as soon as we got clearance. After an hour or so there, we finally got to New York. There was a flight leaving to Montreal in 5 minutes that they could put me on. I raced across the airport, got stuck at the security gate behind someone who kept setting off the metal detector and got to my gate just in the nick of time. Except, not all of the crew had made it in with all the weather problems. We waited on the plane. Once again I couldn't leave even to make a call to explain how much later I would be. At this point, Chocolate Boy is probably at the airport and this is also before cell phones. So, I sat on the plane, with some 7 other passengers and we all told each other all about where we came from and what we were going to do. Everyone thought I would come home engaged. I didn't think so. By now, however, I was really getting knots in my stomach. I was really late. I wasn't even sure how I was going to meet up with Chocolate Boy. Would he be able to find out what flight I was on? What WAS going to happen when I got there? Truth be known, since I made the decision to meet up again, I had really started taking this guy seriously. What if I was disappointed? What if he changed his mind? We were now going to enter that scary stage in any relationship. Which direction was it going to go? He had been a super friend and confidant over the last semester. He had definitely put up with a lot from me. What was he going to be like in person? I'd only been with him for a handful of hours before. That had been fun, and there had been an attraction that day, but what about now? What would we both feel like at the end of a 10 day stay? This day had been dragging on forever and it was starting to feel like I was never even going to get there to find out.

Eventually the crew made it in and we made our last flight to Montreal. Upon arrival I had to go through customs and then I had to go through a baggage claim because of course my luggage had not kept up with me. I was feeling ever so jumpy and wiped out at the same time. I just wanted to get through all this nonsense and find my Chocolate Boy! I was really worried what he must be thinking at this point and whether he would be at the airport or back at home trying to call around to find me. Finally, the heart stopping moment arrived. I was directed to the doors that led out to where people were waiting for those of us coming off international flights. I walked out into a long, sterile room with white walls and a chrome gate behind which a sea of people waited for those arriving to exit the customs area. I had come out a side door from baggage claim, and as I looked down the long gate, I saw Chocolate boy leaning with one foot on the bottom rung, one arm on the top rung, a handful of wilted flowers in one hand and the most forlorn look I had ever seen. It was so pathetic. The churning in my stomach stopped as a wave of relief at finding him so easily mingled with a wave of compassion and an irresistible urge to get to him and save him from his hopelessness. I worked my way through the crowd, and got right up to him before he saw me. "Thank goodness!" He exclaimed as relief and joy swept over his face. Some force beyond me pushed me straight into his arms and without even thinking about it, I planted my lips right on his! (This was so uncharacteristic of me. I had a flirtatious nature but believed in being the chase-e and not the chas-er. I had never been the initiator.) His reaction initially felt like he'd just been hit in the face with a blast of water from a garden hose and by the time I was thinking, "What am I doing?" he had decided to kiss me back, while my lips were turning into question marks. So, the un-synchronized kiss came to an end and we awkwardly looked at each other, smiled and said "Hello!" There it was, my first kiss with Chocolate Boy: unrehearsed, unplanned (yet), in a strange, unromantic place in front of an assortment of strangers from everywhere on earth. It was one of the most startling and strangest kisses of my life- charged with several emotions, but definitely not a typical Hollywood kiss. Well, the ice was broken anyways.

We caught each other up on what had happened with our day. He had indeed been worried. One of his friends said maybe it was just a joke, that I wasn't really coming. He'd called my roommate and she assured him I had left early that morning to fly to Montreal, so he'd headed right back and waited for hours for me to catch up to him. He took me out to eat. We had fun. Things were looking good. This was definitely going to be a great vacation. Later, when things were much more relaxed, both of us huddled up together out in the icy night air that is Montreal in December, surrounded by huge mounds of snow sparkling under the streetlights, I got a nice long, sweet, ooey gooey make your foot flip up kind of kiss to warm up my nose and my heart. This time neither one of us acted like a deer in headlights.

Next week I just might have time to tell what happened next. Did I go home engaged like the people on the plane thought? What do you think?

10 comments:

MommasWorld said...

I love how you described seeing him in the airport and the kiss. It was like I was there at the airport watching both of you.

Brillig said...

(I'm seriously squealing here.) I LOVE IT!!!! *sigh* That first kiss was FANTASTIC! No, not hollywood, but so REAL. And perfect in its imperfections. *sigh again*

I'm betting you came home engaged... That's my guess. But I'm not good at this stuff, so... maybe not? :-D

Melanie Jacobson said...

I'm totally betting on engaged!....Right?

Anonymous said...

Great description of him leaning against the gate with the wilted flowers. Wow.

Engaged? Please? Too real to not come all the way true!

caramama said...

I love that it wasn't some perfect Hollywood kiss! That was way better. That was a kiss to remember! ;-)

The Cranes said...

The part about forlorn Chocolate Boy with the wilted flowers melted my heart!

Kaci said...

ooooo!! :) LOL!

Joanna said...

Awww! And at the same time arg! for making me wait to read more. ;)

4boyzmdmom said...

I know what happens! Hee, hee, hee!

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

Well I read these last 2 installment in the wrong order,but that was OK. Enjoyed your story!