First (Good) Kiss

I did the unthinkable.

I started hanging out with a guy from a dating web site that I joined recently.

Now, now, I am not COMPLETELY crazy (yet). I took my sweet-ass time to get to know him, whatever that might mean in an online world. Late night IMs and all that jazz - we did it all before we decided to meet.

I must say it was weird at first. On our respective web pages we stated that we were looking for "Friendship Only". For whatever (okay, primarily safety) reason, I decided that if I were to dive into the world on online dating, I wasn't going to dive into a sea full of bloodthirsty sharks with my hands tied behind my back, metaphorically speaking.

After talking to each other online for almost a month, we've decided to meet at a local bar. We were also going to bring our friends, just so that our night wouldn't be completely and totally lost if we ended up hating each other the minute we laid our eyes on each other.

Except that all my friends (all two of them in Cincinnati) just HAPPENED to be out of town. Fine, I thought to myself as I was driving to the bar that Friday night, I will try to enjoy myself as much as possible, regardless the circumstances.

Well, much to my surprise, I ended up having the time of my life even though nothing even remotely romantic happened that night. After we parted our ways and I closed the door of my apartment, I was left completely alone with my pesky thoughts.

I can overanalyze any situation to death and beyond, you see. I suppose I am a typical woman in that respect. So naturally, I began to question the events of the night. Why didn't he seem interested in me? Why didn't he kiss me?

Oh sure, so his friend tagged along with us. That's still no excuse. Is it? Maybe I just don't have the "it" factor any more? Maybe I am turning into an old maid at 23? Oh God, the horror!

I played the waiting game. I've learned to play it well and the waiting paid off. He IMed me to ask if I wanted to grab drinks on Wednesday night. I breathed a sigh of relief as I typed a confident "yes".

We met at a bar where everything seemed to be made of plush and velvet. The DJ was skillfully spinning old school hip-hop and progressive rock with a dash of 80's pop in between. I instantly fell in love with the place and as boy talked about this and that, my mind kept shamelessly digressing to the candid thoughts of kissing him.

I still could not, for the life of me, figure out if he liked me as more than a friend though. And as the night continued on, I made a decision that if he liked me in a strictly platonic way I was willing to be just friends with him. I couldn't dare to put an end to our witty, silly and honest conversations with a kiss.

We ended our night at the bar with a dance, and my hopes for a romantic future were as high as the sky as he brushed against my hand with his on the way to my car, and then intertwined his fingers with mine. Sweet.

As we walked down the empty midnight streets, we began a game of playfully pushing each other. Before I knew it, we took our game to a car parking lot. I was trying to escape him and he was trying to catch me. I quickly ran out of breath (jesus, when was the last time I played tag with anyone?) and he caught up with me, grabbing me from behind and lightly biting my shoulder. I squealed for heightened dramatic effect and spun around, trying to avoid another bite. He paused for a second, as did I, and for that I received a lighter shoulder bite just moments later. He paused again, his face closer to mine this time. He waited for me to pull back. I didn't, and that's when it happened.

It was very movie-like, that kiss, minus the random out-of-nowhere fireworks in the sky. But, in a way, it was so much better than any movie I have ever seen. It was real.