‘Nothing could have prepared me for this’ – Featured Fiction 10

 

She hadn’t noticed the others leaving, but now she found herself alone with him. They had been sitting opposite one another talking for a while, flirting as usual, oblivious to everyone else. It was quiet now and the sun was sinking lower. She had looked out towards the fields and softly sighed, she loved staying out in the country. It had been the best decision she had ever made to take the converted attic flat. As soon as she saw the photos of it she knew that it was actually made for her, and it was on a farm. She viewed it and loved it and although it was over her budget, she loved it so much that she decided she had to have it. She negotiated the price down a little and took on an extra few hours work a week so that she could afford it. She had never regretted it. It was exactly what she needed. It was quiet, beautiful, serene; the perfect surroundings for her writing. She had never expected to meet him, but as soon as she did, she was instantly attracted to him and she could tell that he was attracted to her. She assumed that he had a wife and family and was surprised when she found out he didn’t. She remembered that he did have a girlfriend in the beginning, but something had happened there and he didn’t see her anymore.

 

They had hit it off straight away, the way people sometimes do, although it had been a long time since she had felt that way with anyone. She looked forward to bumping into him which she did regularly when she went for walks and then one Sunday he had asked to join her on a walk and it became a weekly thing. They talked about everything on that walk, and it seemed like there was this unwritten code that while they were on their walk, they could talk about anything. He seemed fascinated by her. He questioned her a lot; about her life, about her writing, about her travels, about her previous loves. Usually she was the listener with people, but with him she did most of the talking and he seemed happy to listen. She tried not to look at him too much when they were on the walks, because she thought he was so handsome it distracted her and made her nervous, something always seemed to pass between them when she looked at him, she just couldn’t look at him normally without feeling like her stomach was jumping around. It also made her nervous and she forgot about what she was saying. She hadn’t expected this, she was trying hard to focus on her writing and finishing the book, but she was completely distracted by him and she often wrote about him, and although when she was doing that she wasn’t working on her book, when she did manage to focus on her book it was always very productive and she often felt inspired.

 

She had felt this moment building over the past few months and now they were on their own on a Saturday night and they had been drinking cider. She turned back to him and looked at him, he was looking at her in that way again and it made her feel flustered. His looking at her made her insides come to life in a way she couldn’t control. She could feel his eyes on her. This time she didn’t look away first. He smiled and turned away to look out at the landscape and while his face was turned away from her, he reached out and touched her hand ever so gently with just two of his fingers. The touch sent a thrill through her, like a drug coursing through her veins. She tried her hardest not to move, to act naturally even though she was in a state of internal intoxication. She breathed in deeply and tried to calm herself. His touch did something to her, she was sure of it. There was an energy that was passing between them and his energy super charged hers.

 

“Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me, kiss me” she said to him in her head, trying to will him to do it. She knew she couldn’t be the one to instigate it. He was old fashioned, he had to make the first move, or had he made the first move by touching her hand? He turned back around and looked at her again. His eyes lingered there for a few moments and then he slowly leaned over closer to her, his smile gone. He touched her face gently and then touched her lips with his. It was soft at first, barely even touching, tempting, teasing and then as they both realised that they were actually doing it, actually kissing, they opened their mouths and kissed harder and more passionately. She was not really thinking about anything, she was just kissing, lost in the feeling in her lips and what that was doing to her heart and every single of the millions of hairs on her body.

They parted and she looked at him, they both laughed. She looked out at the sunset again and sighed.

 

“What is that look you have when you look out there and sigh?” he asked her in his slightly cocky way.

 

“What look?” she asked giving him a different kind of look.

 

“The way you always look when we’re walking, you stop talking and then you look around and sigh” he answered.

 

“It’s a happy sigh. I guess I’m just loving it.”

 

“Loving what?”

 

“Everything” she said simply.

 

He looked at her, smiled then pulled her over so that she was lying on him, both of them looking out to the sunset, it was hazy now and it was at that little pause before the sun starts to sink fast beneath the horizon. She wished the world would just stay in that pause, because right at that moment, everything was right, everything was where it should be, doing exactly what it should be. For the first time in the longest time, she felt completely happy, no touch of sadness lurking in the background, no fears, no doubts, just happy and just exactly how she should be. “Nothing could have prepared me for this” she thought to herself. She decided that love was not a doing word, she was love and he was love, it was an experience.

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