"It's too bad we don't have a nice Bordeaux to go with this. When we go to your house in France, we are drinking wine with every meal."
"Have you ever been to France?"
"No, but I've traveled some. Do you like to travel? I love it."
"Yeah, I do. I like to see the different cultures, experience the foods, see the sites, the countryside. Where have you been?"
"Italy, Germany, England, then like Hawaii, Mexico, Florida, the Caymans, St. Kitts and St. Barts."
"What did you think of St. Kitts?"
"It's like paradise. I would love to go back. My parents are on this thing where they don't want to go back to the same place until they have been everywhere or something. But I would love to go there and just relax."
"I could maybe arrange that." I can't help it, I'm smiling big.
"Oh and how you going to do that?"
"We have a place there."
"Really?"
"Okay, so this is way out of left field. No, never mind. Um, so are you excited for this weekend?"
He holds a spoonful of soup up to my mouth. I drink the soup off the spoon.
"Don't do that."
"Don't do what?"
"What you just did. You were going to tell me something. Something that you were excited about, but then you like got scared to."
I soak an escargot in wine sauce and eat it. It's really good.
"This is all really good," I tell him.
"Keatyn."
"What, can you like read my mind?"
"No, but I sure wish I could. I would love to know what you're thinking. Tell me."
I bob my head around like an idiot, trying to think up a lie. But there's none in my brain.
"My family is going to be in Europe over Thanksgiving, Tommy has movie premieres he has to do, and they wanted me to come over to France, but we aren't off school all that long, so I don't know if I will go, but I may still go, I haven't decided. But he told me I should go down there. Like I could take friends or something if I wanted to. Maybe your family might like to go or something? Or do you have a big traditional Thanksgiving with your extended family?"
"Well, we usually go to my grandma's for dinner and then watch football. But hmmm, let me talk to my parents about it. Why didn't you want to tell me?" (Cut part, too.) "Um, well it's like two months away, and who knows if we'll even still be friends by then."
"Boots, we're gonna be way more than friends by then."
"You seem so sure when you say stuff like that. It freaks me out a bit."
"Yeah, well it freaks me out a bit too. I mean, jeeze, look at your track record."
The smile runs off my face. I put my head down and stare at the table cloth. I can't believe he just said that.
He moves his head closer to mine. Touches my forehead with his. I look up, and he bats those eyes and grins at me. "You know I'm just teasing you. Come here."
I don't move. So he puts his hand under my chin, pushing it up, straight to his waiting lips.
Once again his kiss is so simple, so chaste, just our lips touching, barely moving, and then he cruelly pulls those perfect lips away from me.
I smile at him, curl my lip up.
"I'd really like to know what you're thinking right about now."
"I'm thinking no one has ever kissed me the way you do." I answer honestly. (Finally, she admits it to him!) He stares at me for a few beats of my heart, then says, "So you excited for this french weekend? You do realize that since we are on the social committee together, that we have an obligation to be together the entire weekend and make sure that everything is going as planned?"
I squint my eyes at him, trying to gauge if he's joking. He looks quite serious.
"I didn't know that."
"Oh yes, I had it written into the bylaws, so Friday night we have to wander the streets of Paris, hand in hand, like lovers. We have to sit at the cafe table outside, kiss and drink coffee. We have to be teammates for lawn bowling, and then I have a special picnic planned for while we watch the movie."
"And the holding hands and kissing, that's just us trying to create a Parisian ambiance?"
"Oh, no. That will be because you want to."
"I want to? No. You want to."
"What makes you think that?"
My response is interrupted by the waiter bring our entrees. It smells heavenly. He went a little cheesy romantic on the entree, ordered us chateaubriand for two. It's served with a bearnaise sauce and roasted potatoes.
He cuts into it, feeds me the first rich morsel. "Because you are wooing me." I tell him after I finish chewing.
"Me? Naw." He grins, "What was your first clue?"
"Honestly, the way things have gone between us, like so up and down, like one minute you pulled the she loves me petal off and the next she loves me not. But not until I was talking to your sister today. We were talking about wooing, and I realized all that you've done."
"And?"
"I like it."
"More than the chocolate mousse we ordered for dessert?"
"Hmmm, that might be a tough choice," I tease.
We finish dinner, get back in his car. He leans in toward me, pushes my hair back behind my ear and says, "I want this feather. Can I take it off?" (The feather scene is one of my favorites. Also, do you know how hard it is to come up with scenes that are highly sensual like this without having them have actual sex? Heck, he hasn't even kissed her with his tongue yet!) I'm sort of puzzled by this request, but I say, "Uh sure."
He glides the hook out of my ear.
He runs his finger across it, says, "It's soft."
He looks at me with half lidded eyes, sexxxxy sexxxy bedroom type eyes. Then he takes the feather and runs it down my arm.
"Mmhmm," I groan slightly.
He pushes my hair from one side of my neck to the other, so my neck and shoulders are fully exposed on the side closest to him. Then he runs the feather down my neck and across my shoulder.
It may be the sexiest thing anyone has ever done to me.
My dress is strapless, and when he runs the feather across the top of my cleavage, I decide it is indeed the sexiest thing anyone has ever done to me.
How does he come up with this shit?
His mother is Aphrodite, that's how. Durrr.
I lean my head back into the headrest and close my eyes. Just feel the feather gliding across my skin, leaving me with goosebumps everywhere. He glides it up on my face, across my eyelids.
I swear, I'm taking this feather home and having it bronzed.
He runs it across my lips.
Although having it dipped in gold would probably be more godlike. (LOVE!) And then I feel him lean in closer to me, and his lips replace the feather.
I run my fingers into his hair at the nape of his neck, and finally he kisses me more deeply.
It's a tongues touch, then caress, then suck kind of kiss.
Who was it that said we need to come up with another word besides amazing?
Oh, I forget.
He had his hands in my hair, and now he's running them across my shoulders, and oh, he is kissing down my neck and leaving me breathless. His fingers move slowly across the front of my dress, and then I feel one single finger making a line across the top of my dress, just under the dress, on my skin. It starts over by my shoulder, runs across the top of one boob, down into my cleavage, back up and across the other side. I'm leaned back in the seat, my eyes closed, enjoying every single touch. Smiling. Sighing little contented sighs. He grabs my chin and turns my head toward him.
I half open my eyes.
Did I mention that I am in love with this boy? One hundred percent completely stupidly in love with him? (No, you didn't, but we know.) Gaze into his eyes and kiss him. Eventually he has to stop kissing me and drive us back to school.
We are lazily wandering back up toward my dorm, hand in hand,when I hear a voice say, "Keatie?"
Oh, shit.
It's Dawson. Sitting on the steps in front of the dorm, waiting for me.
I drop Aiden's hand. Freeze.
"Uh, hey, Dawson. Uh, what's up?"
Aiden grabs my hand back in his, says, "Hey, tonight was great. Don't forget our meeting at seven." Then he leans in, kisses me on the cheek, walks away.
Dawson says, "So how was your date? You're both pretty dressed up."
"Dinner was good. Aiden was able to read most of the menu, well parts of it anyways and it was nice. How was your night? What'd you do?"
He grabs my waist like he always does and pulls me in toward him. And you would think that after the feather and the amazing kissing that my body would not respond to this. But it does. My hips slide in towards his. But I can't kiss him. I pray he doesn't try to kiss me.
"Complained to Bryce the entire time you were gone. He finally told me to shut the fuck up. So I came out here to wait for you."
"Oh, I'm sorry, so I have to get in there. Sign in."
I give him a hug and say, "Just text me, we can talk."
No, we are both ah-mazing.
10:45 pm Laying in my bed, just finished telling Katie all about my night. I touch my lips with my finger. Close my eyes, can feel the feather running across me. It's really amazing....okay. Hang on.
I grab my Mac. I sound like a group of 12 year olds at the mall. This skirt is ah-mazing. You look amazing, No, we are both ah-mazing.
Time for a new word. Amazing is so overused.
Okay, so here are some options: astonishing, awesome, fascinating, incredible, marvelous, prodigious, shocking, stunning, surprising, unbelievable, wonderful, extraordinary, rare, something hard to put into words, makes your heart beat faster.
Okay so tonight with Aiden was extraordinarily, unbelievably wonderful.
And ah-mazing.
My phone buzzes.
Hottie God: Hey :) Me: Hey :) Tonight was wonderful. I enjoyed it.
Hottie God: Didn't quite end the way I wanted it to.
Me: Yeah, I was shocked to see Dawson sitting there. Sorry about that.
Hottie God: Omg, just tell me.
Me: Tell you what?
Hottie God: Did you kiss him?
Me: I did not. I hugged him. Told him I had to get inside. Told him to text me. He hasn't.
Hottie God: I still have your earring.
Me: I need it back.
Hottie God: Why?