Cupid’s Arrow ~ Take Two

Standing on the plane, my bag in hand, I begin to sweat. I feel nervous, excited and terrified all at the same time. As I slowly creep forward I think, my life is about to change forever. Once I fall into his embrace, I am done. This will either be the most romantic and passionate weekend of my life or I will find my heart utterly shattered, but still not wanting to change a thing.

Who would have thought that I would be meeting Sam after 25 years! Sam, my former high school sweetheart. In minutes, I will see him face to face after months of talking. My heart is pounding. My belly is fluttering. It is like I am 17 again…minus the awesome flat abs and wrinkleless face. Damn the aging process! What the hell? I never understood why men looked more rugged and distinguished in age and women…well, they just look old. Not fair Mother Nature. Not fair.

Finally, people start to make progress and my feeble legs manage to walk. I head toward the baggage area and text Sam that I am on the way. “OMG. I am so nervous! But, here I come.”

“I am nervous too baby. No worries, we’ve waited long enough. Now hurry up, so I can kiss you,” Sam quickly replies.

I am so excited that I have to stop by the bathroom to breath, check myself in the mirror and dab my sweat. Looking in the mirror is not that 17-year-old girl anymore, but instead a confident woman. “I can do this. Breath. And for the love of God, stop sweating! Now go. He will like you,” I chant to my reflection. I walk down the long corridor. I swear it seems ironically long as the 25 years that have passed since I last saw Sam. “How long is this damn hallway,” I mutter.

Raging with nerves, my scattered thoughts think about our high school romance. We were so into each other back then. He was on the football team. I was a cheerleader. We were the best of friends too. Oh, and we were both so shy. It’s a miracle that we even went out since it took forever for us to summon the courage to talk to each other. After football games, we would go to the pizza house with all of our friends. We would walk around hand in hand. We would talk and laugh by each other’s lockers at school. We would take long drives to be near each other. Everyone thought we were the cutest couple.

I giggle. People must be wondering why I look so stupidly happy as I walk down this ridiculously long hall. But I can’t stop smiling. And much to my displeasure, I am still sweating. “Ugh. Well, I sure hope he is sweating as much as I am. Maybe then, it won’t be as obvious,” I think.

Finally, I see the door. I stop for a brief second. I breathe. I look down to make sure there is no toilet paper on my shoe. My dress is straight. “OK. This is it,” I tell myself literally out loud. Yep, I have resorted to talking to myself. I am that nervous. Hopefully, no one notice that. If so, who cares! I am about to kiss Sam. “Oh my God! My breath! Where is my gum? Does my breath smell bad?” Yes, I am having a moment of panic and I stand there rummaging through my purse.

Suddenly, my phone beeps with a text. “I can see you. Get out here! I can’t wait to kiss you. So whatever you are worried about is not real. I can see you already and I know I want to kiss you! Walk through the door,” Sam’s text reads. I laugh and look up. The door is the only thing separating the 20-foot distance between us. And there he is smiling and standing there…waiting for me.

I walk out the door and up to him. We are looking at each other and standing so close I can feel his breath on my face…and it smells good. We just stare into each other’s eyes for a moment. I don’t even know how long even – 10 seconds? 30 seconds? 1 minute? I don’t know, but we just stand there, taking each other in. I gaze into his blue eyes and I know, I am done. I am so done. We smile and then he grabs my face and pulls me to his lips. I immediate drop my bag from my hand and wrap my arms around his shoulders and kiss him back eagerly. He steps back after we have a full, long passionate kiss and says, “Um, hi. Welcome to California.”

I laugh, “Yeah. Hi to you too. That’s the best welcome a state has ever given me. I need to fly more often if this is the reception at airports these days.”

Sam’s eyes laugh and he blushes some. “Let me grab your bag. Oh, and I got you these,” he says as he hands me small bundle of colorful flowers that were down by his feet. I grab the flowers, bring them to my nose and smell, thinking he is so sweet because the bundle has little tiny pink carnations in it. That was the homecoming corsage he got for me decades ago, and we joked about it in one of our recent conversations. I stop and grab his arm. “Sam.” “What? Is something wrong?” he looks alarmed.

“Oh no. I just wanted to say thank you,” and with that, I lean into him and kiss him on the cheek. “I am so glad I am here.” Relief washes over his face.

“I am too baby. I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Let’s get out of here. I will show you my town, and if you’re lucky, I just may kiss you again,” he teases me.

With the biggest grin on my face, I say, “I kind of have a feeling, I’m lucky. I mean who gets a second chance to kiss their homecoming date, football star, super hot boyfriend after 25 years!”

“I guess you do my sexy cheerleader. Yeah, you are so getting lucky today” Sam laughs as he grabs me, pulling me into his arms again and kissing me deeply. All the years we spent apart start to fade away as I stand in his embrace. I am 17 and falling in love again, with my whole future ahead of me, but I stop and look up at him seriously.

“Sam. I don’t think we should get too lucky at the airport.” He drops his hands and a boyish grin crosses his face.

“You are absolutely right. If we keep this up, we could end up in jail for the next four days. Let’s go get reacquainted baby doll.” And with that, we exit the airport and head out to wherever this second chance is leading us. Neither one of us knows where that may be, but we sure as hell are not missing the chance to try.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

For the Cupid’s Arrow Daily Prompt.

It is not exactly and ode, but this is where the prompt lead me. There is freedom in interpretation right? 🙂

Months later, the Prompt ~ First Crush made me think of this post. So I figured I would link it since it fit so well. Maybe I should do a sequel to this story….