Another Perfect Night

Articles

Holly Winter
Living The Life Of Holly

Another Perfect Night
Mar 30, 2003

It was one of those nights where everything was going just right. Full moon. Open parking space in the crowded lot. Great table in a busy restaurant. Perfect bottle of wine, which is always suspect, because Darlin-man and I know nothing about wine.

“You want white tonight?” he asked me, while the waitress waited.

I nodded, and sat back in my chair offering no help. He was just trying to whittle down the selections. I didn’t care what kind of wine I drank, as long as it wasn’t vinegar. Usually we let the bartender choose our alcohol. But, he was feeling daring, and I was willing to let him experiment.

I watched as his eyes played with the choices. Eeenie, meenie, minie, moe.

“We will have this Chardonnay, please.” He said, pointing confidently.

“You sure?” I asked, trying to instill doubt.

He playfully narrowed his eyes as she rushed off to place our order.

We relaxed through our dinner enjoying another wonderful evening together. Walking back to the car, we were moving dangerously close together. I could only blame it on the full moon. Or maybe it had something to do with that bottle of wine.

We got to the car shared a quick kiss before he opened the door, and a quick kiss after he opened the door. I got in and he thought that maybe he should climb in after me to help me fasten my seatbelt. You know. Safety first.

Well. It was a good thing that he did. Cause. It is a good place to have another quick kiss, you know, in my seat. So. We had one or two more quick kisses there.

“What are you doing?” He asked as I closed the door after him.

“Saving the battery.” I said, kissing him.

“Let’s go home.” He said.

“Ok.” I said, lingering. I know. I did agree that we should go home. We would go home. Cause. Home is where the fireplace is. But. You know. Just one more kiss. So. We had one more kiss.

“Let’s go home now.” He insisted.

I agreed. And. To seal the agreement we kissed again.

It was getting hot in the car so I thought that maybe we should just loosen our clothing just a bit so that we wouldn’t melt, cause if we melted then it would ruin the leather seats. I was just worried about the seats in his car.

We kissed in agreement of just loosening our clothing just a bit, nothing too risqué or anything.

“We’re leaving now.” He said.

I agreed. “Yes. Now we are leaving. Right now.” And we kissed in agreement. He may not remember me agreeing with him, but I really, really agreed with each and every thing that he said.

“It’s too hot. We’re going home.” He said.

I agreed. He seemed to be getting tense. I didn’t want him driving when he was tense. So we kissed for a while so that he could relax. I hear that it is better to drive when one is relaxed. And. Since he was complaining about being too hot, I thought that it might be best if I unbuttoned his shirt, just a few buttons, so that he could cool off a bit. So, I did. Just three little buttons.

“Holly. No. We can’t do this here. We have to go…”

“Do what here?” I asked, unknowingly. “I just want you to cool off. Why are you getting so tense?” We kissed again in agreement that it was better to cool off.

Something happened to his kisses. Hey. It wasn’t my fault. Something about having his shirt unbuttoned heated up his kisses. I know. It could have gotten ugly.

But it didn’t. Fate wouldn’t let it. Well. Fate and the panic button on his key chain. No. I don’t really understand modern technology, because I don’t have one of those panic buttons on my key chain. I guess that the panic button is there so that if a robber were to jump out from behind your car, then you could press the panic button rather than yell for help.

So. Imagine our surprise, and the surprise of the people walking by our car, when the lights in the car flashed on, the horn started blaring, and the headlights began blinking: on, off, on, off, on, off. Believe me. The panic button was correctly named. I, for one, was in a high state of panic, thinking that we were the subjects of some kind of sneak police raid. You know. For kissing in the front seat of a car in a college town.

Luckily for me Darlin-man knew exactly what to do. He smoothed his clothing into place and fumbled my door open. Without even a quick look of apology towards me, he fell out of the car and started the long race around the front.

Now. I know. It is sort of like that Chinese fire drill game where everyone jumps out of the car at a red light and jumps back into the car through a different door. Only I wasn’t jumping. I was laughing uncontrollably and trying to readjust my clothing at the same time. He was trying to look unobtrusive, which only made him look somehow guilty, which earned him an audience of pointing, cheering students. Have you any idea just how long it takes to run around a big car?

Well. He did finally manage to reach the driver’s door. And as soon as he had inserted the key into the door, the litany of sounds stopped and we were once again bathed in the quiet of the moon lit parking lot.

Darlin-man majestically waved good-bye to our crowd of onlookers, climbed into the car, and said cheerily, “I’m ready for apple pie, how ‘bout you?”

About the author: Holly Winter is a teacher and a writer and a flight attendant living in Denver, Colorado, USA. She can be reached at her website or email: Holly@livingthelifeofholly.com

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