A Happy New Year

I held her tight, didn't wanna let her go, I felt tears rolling down, I guess it was the longing... she moved away and looked at me, we stared at each other for a while, and then I heard her whispering.

"Have you ever heard that in some countries, wearing black in New Year is bad luck?"

I laughed.

"I wouldn't call this bad luck..."

She smiled. And I realized how much I missed that smile, so familiar. But then, she got serious.

"Why did you come to New York, David?"

Of course she would ask that at some point, but the explanation was long and I had more interesting things to do. I got serious too and answered her with a question.

"Why do you think?"

She didn't answer, just looked at me. I decided to move on to the next step.

"So, are you gonna invite me in or what? I'm freezing out here... and so are you..."

I held her tight in my arms, because she was cold. And also, to be more emphatic about my invitation. She laughed.

"The apartment is downstairs."

So, we went there. She went to turn the heating on, and I took of my jacket and shoes, which were soaked. Meanwhile, I was looking around, the apartment was small, but very nice, very Anne… on a shelf, there were a few photo frames, I could see some of Anne's friends, her parents, Matt, and an old picture of us, at Disneyworld…

She came back, and I decided to make a compliment, always useful.

"Your apartment is lovely..."

She blushed, and looked around.

"Yeah... it's pretty small, what I can afford... but I love it... It's good for me."

Exactly what I was thinking... and I finished.

"And it's close to Times Square...""...like we always dreamed."

We spoke at the same time and laughed. I always told her that someday, Matt, she and I would live in NY, and close to Times Square, which was my favorite place in town. While I remembered that, I looked at her. She broke the silence

"Dave... if you wanna take a shower... change your clothes, I don't know… well, I guess you have no dry clothes, but I can at least give you a blanket so you don't freeze… in fact, where's your stuff? You came here with nothing?"

Always the same, worried about unimportant things...

"Of course not... I left my stuff in the first hotel I found... everything was getting wet..."

In fact, I had to go back there later. But now, it wasn't time to think about that. I moved closer to Anne and put my arms around her.

"Actually, I don't need my dry clothes now..."

Nice one. She widened her eyes and blushed again. I could feel her heart beating fast.

"Still cold?"

She whispered.

"Not even a little bit..."

There were still some raindrops on her face. All of the sudden, I remembered one night, months ago, when I was looking at her face, the moon was lighting up her face, and a few drops were also rolling down… I also remembered what happened after that, it was the first time we got together, one of the best nights of my life. And then, I felt as if everything that had happened after that night didn't exist. At least for tonight. I decided to check if she was also finding that scene familiar too.

"You know... looking at us wet reminds me of a scene that happened months ago... you remember?"

She stared at me for a while before answering. I could see my own eyes reflected on hers…

"I remember it every day."

Ok, that's it. I ran my hands through her face, tried to remember the last time we were so close, it had been ages ago… I didn't care about what she had done anymore, Andrew was right, we couldn't change the past, but we could do something about the future, it was her I loved, I wanted, I had no more doubts about that, I couldn't be without her… I might be criticized for my decision, but I didn't regret it, I was happy… her scent was hypnotizing me…

I was in a hurry, I wanted to get to fourth base soon, as usual between us... I considered undressing her and lay her down on the living room floor... but I gave it a second thought, it had been so long since we had last been together, and this was special, we had to enjoy every second, and the song on the radio was inspiring me to be romantic at least for once... we deserved that.

I slowly took off her coat and another blouse, leaving her wearing only a tank top... I could feel her shaking, but I guess it wasn't because she was cold... I kissed her on the lips, the face, the neck, the shoulder... I felt her whole body shivering. She took my shirt off and looked at me, I unbottoned my jeans. I ran my hand through my wet hair, and Anne was still looking at me, and this time her mouth was a little opened. She stared at me, I pulled and kissed her. I decided to be a little bit more romantic and lifted her up, to take her to the room.

"What is this, David?"

We were really not used to that romance... but that was a special occasion.

"I guess at least this time we deserve something more comfortable than the garage or the living room floor..."

I took her to her room, which was not hard to find, there were not many options. I slowly laid her down on the bed, and not as I usually would have done. I leaned on my arms and just stared at her, she was so beautiful… I could only think about the good memories, everything we had been through together, the first kiss, the day at the garage, the first time we said "I love you", the good days in Hawaii… I tried to go as slowly as I could, at the same time I wanted to get to the good part soon, but I also didn't want it to end, we deserved that, it had been so long… I was waiting for the moment Anne would pull me, ask me to get that over with because she couldn't take it anymore, but I realized she was also enjoying that, enjoying every moment, I could see that in her eyes, that she didn't wanna be anywhere else in the world but here. Neither did I.

I gently took her clothes off, didn't tear anything up this time, and she did the same. In every look, every kiss, I felt how much we had missed each other… and every time I felt her scent, I could feel all the anger disappearing, far, far away… I kissed her whole body, sometimes I stopped to look at her in the eyes and run my fingers through her face… she put her hand on my chest, I could feel my heart beating fast and I knew hers was too. Everytime I kissed her it was like the first time, and I realized it was somehow, it was our first time since we had changed a lot, the old David and Anne were in the past.

I rubbed my face on her groin, I remembered that first time again... I stayed there for a while, but I couldn't hold it much longer. I went up again, she held me, I started kissing her and we finally completed each other. Boy, I had missed her so much... I felt her shaking, and I surrendered. It was the best feeling in the whole world... that I loved her, that she belonged with me.

I lay down next to her, exhausted. She came closer and rested her head on my chest, I held her, wanted her as close to me as possible. I covered both of us with the blanket, I remembered that time when I woke up in the middle of the night all wet and freezing, and seeing her shaking too… I didn't say anything, I was too tired and there was nothing to say. I guess she felt the same. Even though I was tired, I wasn't sleepy, I didn't wanna sleep yet, I just stayed there, remembering all the moments and running my fingers through her hair, it still had the same scent as I remembered, I always loved it... after a while, I looked down and realized she was sleeping. I stared at her for a while, held her closer to me so she wouldn't be cold, and then I finally fell asleep too.