See previous parts for disclaimers.
***
When we reached the fresh air Katie spoke up. "I can't believe her."
She turned to look at us, suddenly feeling guilty. "I'm sorry I got you into this."
I smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't worry, I know it's not your fault."
"What happened exactly?" Grace suddenly asked.
Of course they still had no idea what had went down in there.
"Yeah Jess, you're getting us drinks, next thing we see is you getting into some bar fight." Susanna spoke up.
I sighed. "Well." I started. "This girl came up. She was being all rude and stuff, and she started harassing me, so Katie told her to back off and she just launched herself at her."
"So if she was harassing you, why did *we* get our asses thrown out of there?" Michelle wondered.
"You didn't, Katie and I did." I corrected her.
"Your ass is my ass. Same thing." she stated simply. Grace and Susanna nodded in agreement. I gave them a faint smile.
"I pushed her, that was all Nicki needed." Katie suddenly said. I turned towards her. "Nicki has hated me ever since I came to work there, I still don't know why. This was just the perfect excuse." She looked up at us. "I'm really sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Seems to me you should be glad to be out of there." Grace said.
I nodded. "I know I am." I said, earning a smile from Katie which made me al tingly inside. I turned towards the other girls.
"Look, I'll explain everything at home. Why don't you guys go ahead?" I said, hoping they got the message. I mean, I went through all that, now I wanted some alone time with Katie.
Luckily, they were very perceptive. Grace nodded. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I'll just walk Katie home." I told her. "You don't mind? I mean, you are here to visit me." I asked her in a soft voice so that nobody could hear.
She winked. "Don't worry. I'm in good company." She looked at her watch. "You've got ten minutes of birthday left. Spend it with your mystery girl." She added with a grin.
I playfully pushed her. "Get out of here." I ended our private conversation.
"Alright, we're off. Be careful you guys." Michelle said.
"We will." I called as we said our goodbyes.
And we were alone. Suddenly I was very aware of that fact and it made me a little nervous. But the good kind of nervous. I turned towards Katie, who was standing there watching the others go and then looked at me.
"So." I said sheepishly. "I'll guess I'll walk you home then."
"I guess you are." she said smiling and started walking. I quickly followed and started walking next to her.
She raised her head. "How did you do that anyway?" she asked suddenly.
"Do what?" I asked.
"That thing with Laura, flipping her over like that."
I chuckled. "Well, a black belt in Tai Kwon Do would do the trick."
She laughed. "Yeah, I can see how that would help. You were awesome."
We were silent for a moment when she suddenly spoke up again. "So ask. I know you wanna know."
I looked up at her. "What?" I asked.
She turned her head towards me. "About Laura."
"Oh, right." She was right, I did want to know, but I didn't want to bring it up because maybe she wouldn't want to talk about it. But since she brought it up herself I figured she wouldn't mind sharing. "So why was she all mean to you?"
Katie sighed. "She hated me before she met me. She just played me."
"What do you mean?" I asked confused. "Hated you before she met you? You dated, didn't you?"
"Yeah, we did, but she had an ulterior motive. She was never in love with me."
I kept silent, encouraging her to go on, and she did.
"She had this girlfriend about 7 months ago. I knew the other girl from school and we hung out a couple of times. I wasn't in love with her or even attracted to her, we were just friends you know?"
I nodded and she went on. "I also knew she had a girlfriend, Laura, but I never met her. After a while, my friend, well, she started to fall in love with me. I wasn't in love with her and she knew it, but she broke up with Laura because she figured she couldn't be with her if she had feelings for someone else. It wouldn't have been fair."
"Yeah, I get that." I replied.
"Well, Laura didn't, she was pissed." Katie continued. "And next thing she's on a mission. To find me and break my heart, because she felt like I indirectly broke hers. So she looked me up and acted like everything was all normal and, well, I sort of fell for her. I didn't know who she was. So we started dating and we had been together for about two months. I really liked her, I thought we were doing good, but then when I went to visit her one day, I found her in bed with another girl."
I let some air escape my mouth. "That was her plan all along? To cheat on you?"
Katie nodded. "But how is it your fault?" I asked her. "You couldn't help it could you? Nothing ever happened between you and the other girl, right?"
"No, nothing, but Laura still blamed me." She turned her head towards me again. "You should have seen the look on her face when I walked in on her. She told me everything and also that she had cheated on me several times." Katie said, looking pissed off. "The bitch was waiting for that moment all along."
I sighed. I was still surprised someone could be so mean as Laura. And to someone like Katie. Someone so nice and sweet. And so beautiful. I suddenly felt the incredible urge to kiss her and make all the pain go away. All the trouble that she caused Katie. And me for that matter. I stopped walking. Katie noticed and stopped too.
"What?" she asked.
"Laura is an idiot." I stated.
Katie looked at me expectantly. It gave me courage and I stepped closer to her. We were less then a feet away.
"To do something like this to someone like you, is just.. I mean, you have got to be a moron." I looked her straight in the eyes.
"And for what it's worth," I continued, feeling surprisingly brave, "I think you are all that."
An adorable smile crept up on her lips as I said this and I felt my stomach do a little dance. More than anything I wanted to kiss those beautiful full lips and I gathered all my courage. I slowly leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, causing my entire body to tingle. She kissed me back softly, teasing my lips with hers. God, this felt good.
The kiss was short, but intense and when we parted I slowly opened my eyes. Hers were still closed, remembering the feeling. After a few seconds she opened them and a smile crept up on her lips.
"Do you want to you what that's worth?" she asked me in a low voice.
"Tell me." I answered.
"I think I'll show you instead." she replied and leaned in again for yet another kiss. I put one hand in her neck as I felt her tongue trailing my lips, seeking permission to enter. I welcomed it in and the kiss became more intense. My whole body was on fire as I felt her hands caress my back. Her hands trailed up towards my face, where her fingers traced my cheeks and then cupped them. We slowly parted again.
I felt very light headed as I opened my eyes and found myself staring into the most beautiful ones I had ever seen.
"You're amazing." I whispered, while we were still holding on to each other tightly.
She smiled. "Funny, I was going to say the same thing about you."
I smiled back at her. Suddenly we heard church bells somewhere far away, telling us it was midnight.
She put a stray of hair behind my ear. "Looks like your birthday is over." she stated.
"Looks like it." I replied. "But I don't care. It was the best one I ever had."
With the church bells on the background we kissed again and said goodbye to my 21st birthday together. I couldn't have been happier.
***
Now, that's some story or what? It really was the best birthday I ever had. I mean, I was in a bar fight and got thrown out of a club for the first and only time in my life, sure, but I met the girl of my dreams, and I got her as well. I couldn't possibly wish for more.
That night, after we kissed a little more, we walked back to her room where I spent the night in her arms. And no, I know the question is on your lips, but nothing happened that night besides making out. We saved the really good parts for later. And let me tell you, they were very good. But I'll save that story for you. Maybe I'll tell you some other time.
I'm sitting in my living room right now, staring out the window. I like these memories, they always make me smile. I look at the clock to see what time it is but I am distracted by movement on the other side of the room. I turn my head and see her walking towards me, carrying two mugs of hot chocolate. She places it on the table and sits down next to me, on the couch. She gives me a small kiss on my lips before she snuggles up against me. I put my arms around her and trace her face gently with my hand. I never get tired of doing that.
She looks at the clock. "One minute." she tells me in a soft voice.
"I know." I answer.
We're about to say goodbye to another year of my life. To her this day is just as special as it is to me. Sure, it's my birthday, and of course that's special, to her as well, but it is so much more. To both of us it's special because it is our anniversary. It's the day we met, the day we fell in love. And that means so much. The fact that we're still together is just one of the signs of how much we love each other. We still look at each other sometimes like we meet for the first time. And everyday I am blown away by her beauty. I want to be with her all the time, feel my skin against hers. To be able to touch her, snuggle up against her, make love to her whenever we feel like it. That makes me the happiest person on this planet. And her too, because I know she loves me more than anything.
Sure we've had our ups and downs, but I think that's only normal. Besides, there were so much more ups, and the downs weren't that horrible either. Just problems that all couples have to face. And we got through it all. The ups made us even more in love with each other and the downs made our relationship stronger, simply because we got through them. I wouldn't have it any other way if I could do it all over again.
So now we're here, in our living room, just a couple of seconds to go till midnight. She's in my arms and I gently stroke her arm with my fingertips. I love the feeling of her. I love everything about her. She'll give me a present in a couple of minutes, she always has something. I always have something for her too, because of the anniversary. They're always little things we give each other, a single red rose, a romantic candle light dinner, stuff like that. It might seem like nothing, but it's all I need. The fact that it's from her and the love that it represents is enough. What it means to her, to me, and to us, that's what matters. The biggest thing she ever gave me was a ring. Now, that's a different story, because it was followed by 'Will you marry me?'. I don't think I need to tell you what my answer was. We got married 2 months later. Maybe I'll tell you about that too some day, who knows?
Right now I'm looking at the clock and the seconds are ticking away. Five seconds to go. She looks up at me adoringly. I can see the love in her gaze and it penetrates me. It makes me love her even more. As the seconds go by we look into each others eyes. We hear a bell, it's midnight. She leans up to me and kisses me sweetly. I eagerly return the kiss. When we part she looks me deeply into my eyes.
"Happy Birthday, Jessie." she whispers.
I smile and caress her cheek. God, I love this woman. She's still my angel. She's my everything. And she's with me.
"I love you, Katie." I say, and I mean it.
"And I love you." she answers. She means it just as much.
No matter what she gets me this year, doesn't matter what it is, I'll love it. Just because it's from her. She already gave me the best present she could ever give me for my birthday and she gave it to me all these years ago on the day we met.
Herself.
***
When we reached the fresh air Katie spoke up. "I can't believe her."
She turned to look at us, suddenly feeling guilty. "I'm sorry I got you into this."
I smiled at her reassuringly. "Don't worry, I know it's not your fault."
"What happened exactly?" Grace suddenly asked.
Of course they still had no idea what had went down in there.
"Yeah Jess, you're getting us drinks, next thing we see is you getting into some bar fight." Susanna spoke up.
I sighed. "Well." I started. "This girl came up. She was being all rude and stuff, and she started harassing me, so Katie told her to back off and she just launched herself at her."
"So if she was harassing you, why did *we* get our asses thrown out of there?" Michelle wondered.
"You didn't, Katie and I did." I corrected her.
"Your ass is my ass. Same thing." she stated simply. Grace and Susanna nodded in agreement. I gave them a faint smile.
"I pushed her, that was all Nicki needed." Katie suddenly said. I turned towards her. "Nicki has hated me ever since I came to work there, I still don't know why. This was just the perfect excuse." She looked up at us. "I'm really sorry."
"Don't worry about it. Seems to me you should be glad to be out of there." Grace said.
I nodded. "I know I am." I said, earning a smile from Katie which made me al tingly inside. I turned towards the other girls.
"Look, I'll explain everything at home. Why don't you guys go ahead?" I said, hoping they got the message. I mean, I went through all that, now I wanted some alone time with Katie.
Luckily, they were very perceptive. Grace nodded. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure. I'll just walk Katie home." I told her. "You don't mind? I mean, you are here to visit me." I asked her in a soft voice so that nobody could hear.
She winked. "Don't worry. I'm in good company." She looked at her watch. "You've got ten minutes of birthday left. Spend it with your mystery girl." She added with a grin.
I playfully pushed her. "Get out of here." I ended our private conversation.
"Alright, we're off. Be careful you guys." Michelle said.
"We will." I called as we said our goodbyes.
And we were alone. Suddenly I was very aware of that fact and it made me a little nervous. But the good kind of nervous. I turned towards Katie, who was standing there watching the others go and then looked at me.
"So." I said sheepishly. "I'll guess I'll walk you home then."
"I guess you are." she said smiling and started walking. I quickly followed and started walking next to her.
She raised her head. "How did you do that anyway?" she asked suddenly.
"Do what?" I asked.
"That thing with Laura, flipping her over like that."
I chuckled. "Well, a black belt in Tai Kwon Do would do the trick."
She laughed. "Yeah, I can see how that would help. You were awesome."
We were silent for a moment when she suddenly spoke up again. "So ask. I know you wanna know."
I looked up at her. "What?" I asked.
She turned her head towards me. "About Laura."
"Oh, right." She was right, I did want to know, but I didn't want to bring it up because maybe she wouldn't want to talk about it. But since she brought it up herself I figured she wouldn't mind sharing. "So why was she all mean to you?"
Katie sighed. "She hated me before she met me. She just played me."
"What do you mean?" I asked confused. "Hated you before she met you? You dated, didn't you?"
"Yeah, we did, but she had an ulterior motive. She was never in love with me."
I kept silent, encouraging her to go on, and she did.
"She had this girlfriend about 7 months ago. I knew the other girl from school and we hung out a couple of times. I wasn't in love with her or even attracted to her, we were just friends you know?"
I nodded and she went on. "I also knew she had a girlfriend, Laura, but I never met her. After a while, my friend, well, she started to fall in love with me. I wasn't in love with her and she knew it, but she broke up with Laura because she figured she couldn't be with her if she had feelings for someone else. It wouldn't have been fair."
"Yeah, I get that." I replied.
"Well, Laura didn't, she was pissed." Katie continued. "And next thing she's on a mission. To find me and break my heart, because she felt like I indirectly broke hers. So she looked me up and acted like everything was all normal and, well, I sort of fell for her. I didn't know who she was. So we started dating and we had been together for about two months. I really liked her, I thought we were doing good, but then when I went to visit her one day, I found her in bed with another girl."
I let some air escape my mouth. "That was her plan all along? To cheat on you?"
Katie nodded. "But how is it your fault?" I asked her. "You couldn't help it could you? Nothing ever happened between you and the other girl, right?"
"No, nothing, but Laura still blamed me." She turned her head towards me again. "You should have seen the look on her face when I walked in on her. She told me everything and also that she had cheated on me several times." Katie said, looking pissed off. "The bitch was waiting for that moment all along."
I sighed. I was still surprised someone could be so mean as Laura. And to someone like Katie. Someone so nice and sweet. And so beautiful. I suddenly felt the incredible urge to kiss her and make all the pain go away. All the trouble that she caused Katie. And me for that matter. I stopped walking. Katie noticed and stopped too.
"What?" she asked.
"Laura is an idiot." I stated.
Katie looked at me expectantly. It gave me courage and I stepped closer to her. We were less then a feet away.
"To do something like this to someone like you, is just.. I mean, you have got to be a moron." I looked her straight in the eyes.
"And for what it's worth," I continued, feeling surprisingly brave, "I think you are all that."
An adorable smile crept up on her lips as I said this and I felt my stomach do a little dance. More than anything I wanted to kiss those beautiful full lips and I gathered all my courage. I slowly leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her lips, causing my entire body to tingle. She kissed me back softly, teasing my lips with hers. God, this felt good.
The kiss was short, but intense and when we parted I slowly opened my eyes. Hers were still closed, remembering the feeling. After a few seconds she opened them and a smile crept up on her lips.
"Do you want to you what that's worth?" she asked me in a low voice.
"Tell me." I answered.
"I think I'll show you instead." she replied and leaned in again for yet another kiss. I put one hand in her neck as I felt her tongue trailing my lips, seeking permission to enter. I welcomed it in and the kiss became more intense. My whole body was on fire as I felt her hands caress my back. Her hands trailed up towards my face, where her fingers traced my cheeks and then cupped them. We slowly parted again.
I felt very light headed as I opened my eyes and found myself staring into the most beautiful ones I had ever seen.
"You're amazing." I whispered, while we were still holding on to each other tightly.
She smiled. "Funny, I was going to say the same thing about you."
I smiled back at her. Suddenly we heard church bells somewhere far away, telling us it was midnight.
She put a stray of hair behind my ear. "Looks like your birthday is over." she stated.
"Looks like it." I replied. "But I don't care. It was the best one I ever had."
With the church bells on the background we kissed again and said goodbye to my 21st birthday together. I couldn't have been happier.
***
Now, that's some story or what? It really was the best birthday I ever had. I mean, I was in a bar fight and got thrown out of a club for the first and only time in my life, sure, but I met the girl of my dreams, and I got her as well. I couldn't possibly wish for more.
That night, after we kissed a little more, we walked back to her room where I spent the night in her arms. And no, I know the question is on your lips, but nothing happened that night besides making out. We saved the really good parts for later. And let me tell you, they were very good. But I'll save that story for you. Maybe I'll tell you some other time.
I'm sitting in my living room right now, staring out the window. I like these memories, they always make me smile. I look at the clock to see what time it is but I am distracted by movement on the other side of the room. I turn my head and see her walking towards me, carrying two mugs of hot chocolate. She places it on the table and sits down next to me, on the couch. She gives me a small kiss on my lips before she snuggles up against me. I put my arms around her and trace her face gently with my hand. I never get tired of doing that.
She looks at the clock. "One minute." she tells me in a soft voice.
"I know." I answer.
We're about to say goodbye to another year of my life. To her this day is just as special as it is to me. Sure, it's my birthday, and of course that's special, to her as well, but it is so much more. To both of us it's special because it is our anniversary. It's the day we met, the day we fell in love. And that means so much. The fact that we're still together is just one of the signs of how much we love each other. We still look at each other sometimes like we meet for the first time. And everyday I am blown away by her beauty. I want to be with her all the time, feel my skin against hers. To be able to touch her, snuggle up against her, make love to her whenever we feel like it. That makes me the happiest person on this planet. And her too, because I know she loves me more than anything.
Sure we've had our ups and downs, but I think that's only normal. Besides, there were so much more ups, and the downs weren't that horrible either. Just problems that all couples have to face. And we got through it all. The ups made us even more in love with each other and the downs made our relationship stronger, simply because we got through them. I wouldn't have it any other way if I could do it all over again.
So now we're here, in our living room, just a couple of seconds to go till midnight. She's in my arms and I gently stroke her arm with my fingertips. I love the feeling of her. I love everything about her. She'll give me a present in a couple of minutes, she always has something. I always have something for her too, because of the anniversary. They're always little things we give each other, a single red rose, a romantic candle light dinner, stuff like that. It might seem like nothing, but it's all I need. The fact that it's from her and the love that it represents is enough. What it means to her, to me, and to us, that's what matters. The biggest thing she ever gave me was a ring. Now, that's a different story, because it was followed by 'Will you marry me?'. I don't think I need to tell you what my answer was. We got married 2 months later. Maybe I'll tell you about that too some day, who knows?
Right now I'm looking at the clock and the seconds are ticking away. Five seconds to go. She looks up at me adoringly. I can see the love in her gaze and it penetrates me. It makes me love her even more. As the seconds go by we look into each others eyes. We hear a bell, it's midnight. She leans up to me and kisses me sweetly. I eagerly return the kiss. When we part she looks me deeply into my eyes.
"Happy Birthday, Jessie." she whispers.
I smile and caress her cheek. God, I love this woman. She's still my angel. She's my everything. And she's with me.
"I love you, Katie." I say, and I mean it.
"And I love you." she answers. She means it just as much.
No matter what she gets me this year, doesn't matter what it is, I'll love it. Just because it's from her. She already gave me the best present she could ever give me for my birthday and she gave it to me all these years ago on the day we met.
Herself.