My Morning Run

It’s Saturday morning. I allowed myself to sleep in this morning, so I was late for my morning run. Nonetheless, everything went as usual, until I hit my cool-down at the end of my route. I saw a familiar car pull onto my street. It stopped when the driver saw me. I couldn’t believe it! I did know him! What was he doing here? Why would he be here? It looked like I was about to find out as he rolled down the window.

“Hey, how are you?” I asked with a smile and somewhat out of breath.

“I’m not sure. I really need to talk to you,” he responded.

“You need to talk to me?” I asked. Why would he need to talk to me?

“Yes. I drove here to see you because I may not have another chance.”

“You drove 90 miles just to see me?” I said with a chuckle. He just smirked. “Well, I’m just finishing up. My house is the fourth house on the right. It’s the gray one with blue shutters and fence. There’s a ton of cars in the driveway. Park next to the silver Saturn so that my mom can get her car out of the garage. I will be there in a few minutes.”

“Okay,” he responded. “I will see you in a few,” he said as he rolled up the window and drove off.

I finished my cool-down. He was waiting for me by his car and followed me as I walked into the garage to grab my beach towel. “So, what’s up?” I asked, walking out of the garage and spreading the towel on the grass.

“Well, I really need to talk to you. I had so many opportunities while you were in my hometown and I regretted not taking advantage any of them. I was talking to my dad and he said that I should have talked to you then because I may never see you again. I mean, I am going to grad school and you’ve moved back home and then you will spend the next couple of years traveling. And God only knows what will happen when either of us graduate. When I realized that my dad was right, I remembered that I had your home address and phone number. I tried calling, but I hung up every time. I needed to say this in person,” he paused. I was working on my crunches. He knelt down to get closer to my face. It had always seemed to me that eye contact was very important to him.

“Well, that makes sense…” I said mid-crunch, right before I breathed out, “but what could be so important?”

“Could you stop doing that? It’s really distracting.”

“I’m listening,” I responded. He pressed down on my sternum with the heel of his hand to get me to stop doing my crunches. It kind of threw me for a loop. He’s touching me?

“Your heart is pounding. Does this always happen at the end of your workout?” He said removing my sunglasses so I had to look into his eyes, those penetrating blue eyes. I just looked at him, and that’s how he got his answer. He took his hand off of my chest and gently touched the side of my face as he leaned in for a kiss. I couldn’t believe it. He kissed me! Me, of all the beautiful women in the world? I just looked at him. “I’ve wanted to do that ever since I first laid eyes on you, but I thought if I asked you out, you would say no.”

“You’re right. In college, I wouldn’t have given you a chance.”

“Why didn’t you ever approach me?” He asked leaning back on his heels as I sat up on my elbows.

“Because you were one of those beautiful people, and I thought that if I ever approached you, I would just be making a total fool out of myself.”

“I see,” he replied. I could see in his eyes that he didn’t quite understand.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Would you be willing to try?”

“Try what?”

He smiled. “Making this relationship work.”

“How? You are going away and I will be traveling. Besides, I barely know you.”

“Hmm…sooo…no relationship?” There was an uncomfortable pause. I watched as a deep sadness took over his eyes that just a few moments ago held a glimmer of unveiled hope and happiness.

I touched his arm. “No, I’m just trying to be practical, realistic. I don’t know you. And long distance relationships, well, they just don’t work especially when you are just starting out.”

“Well, why don’t we get to know each other. No strings attached.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we can email and call each other on the phone. You have a cell phone right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I can reach you whenever without a problem. I’m not going away for awhile yet and the drive from home to here really isn’t all that bad. I could come in to see you or vice versa. We could even meet halfway. Then, who knows what will happen.”

“Ummm,” I said reluctantly as I turned away.

“Okay?” He asked with a smile that revealed his perfect teeth. I turned to look at him and his eyes seemed to be swelling with hope.

“Yes.” We hugged.

“Why don’t we get started now? I mean, after all, I’m here.”

“Okay, this sounds like a good place to start.” We went inside to talk and learn more about each other. Who knows what will happen. I guess that I will leave that up to your imagination!

The End?

May 23, 2005