Chapter 1: the kissing man

He’s kissing me. He saw me, grabbed me and now is kissing me. And I don’t mind, the moment his lips touched mine it was instant gratification. This complete stranger, whom I’ve said all of five words too, which included 'hello, I’m Sophia and nice to meet you,' now is dancing his tongue around with mine and I find myself leaning into it. My hands slowly grabbing his forearms and then sliding around to his back to hold on so that this kiss will never end.
And then he pulls away and I find myself pouting and catching him staring at my lips, knowing he wants just what I want. The intense, raw energy right now has my bones buzzing and my insides twisting up wondering what the hell just happened and why isn’t it happening again.

He looks down suddenly embarrassed and I just stand there, motionless, dumbfounded.

“Well, see ya around,” he says as he continues down the stairwell and out the door.

I reach my hand up and brush my lips, did that seriously just happen? I shake my head, forcing myself back to reality and continue up the stairwell to head to my second class of the day.

*****

“I’m telling you, Rachel, it was the most intense kiss I have ever had. I just passed him on the stairwell, and he stopped and said hi. He had this adorable side smile but his eyes were so intense.”

Rachel looks at me waiting for more information. Rachel is really my only friend at school, not that were like two losers or something, we just get annoyed easily by other people. So it’s been the two of us for three years now.

“I said hello back,” I continue, “and he put out his hand asking what my name was. So I shook his hand and said ‘I’m Sophia and it’s nice to meet you’. And he didn’t let go of my hand, his look extreme look on his face only escalated. Then out of nowhere he pulled me in with my hand, put his hands on either side of my face and kissed me.”

“Damn girl. Not gonna lie, that’s weird.”

“Kinda.”

“But was the kiss good?” She leaned in wanting more details.

“Oh my god, yes!”

“Was he cute?”

“Yes! He has those high cheekbones that make his cheeks sink in in the sexiest way. And he has orange hair.”

“Orange hair?” Rach replies snarling.

“It sounds weird, but if you saw him, ugh, you’d melt looking at him too.”

“Wow, miss goodie two shoes is kissing random boys in the stairwell, so unlike you.”

“I know. And the weird thing is, I want to kiss him again.”

“Even if it was that good of a kiss, he’s a complete stranger, what if he has an STI or something?”

“I didn’t sleep with the guy Rach, I just kissed him… well rather he kissed me, then I kissed him back.”

“Well if it was such a good kiss, then go kiss him back.”

“Maybe.”

I smile and shake my head.

“We need to get to class.”

“Yes, one last semester of this dreadful community college then we can become official architects.”

“Thank god,” I agree.

We head off to class.

*****

“Oh my god that’s him!”

I grab Rachel’s purse and pull her around the corner with me trying to hide.

“Who?” She asks.

“The kissing man.”

“Ohhh.” She peeks around the corner and then looks back at me wide eyed. “That is the hottest ginger I have ever seen!”

“Right?” I start biting my lip, nervous. Of what? I don’t exactly know.

“Well, go talk to him.”

“What? No, I couldn’t. What would I say?” I try and shake the idea out of my head. I don’t talk to boys, I admire them from a distance.

“Well maybe start with your name, that landed you in a good spot last time.” She giggles and says with a wink. I slap her arm.

“I’m serious.”

“So am I.” She giggles again thinking she’s so hilarious, I stare blankly back. “okay, okay, just go say hello or something.”

“Yea, okay. I can say hello. It’s just hello. Two syllables, hell-o. Simple”

“You’re stalling.” She turns around the corner yells out “Hey!” and pushed me around the corner.

I stumble into the hallway as he turns around and the passion that’s in his eyes is burning as bright as the hair on his head. I slowly walk up to him as he friends all whisper to him, probably wondering who I am. I don’t even know this man's name or what the hell I’m going to say when I finally reach him. With every step my hearts pounds harder, I can feel my hands start to sweat. What the hell am I doing?

I finally reach up to him and he’s taller than I remember. Although when he kissed me he was two stairs below me, so that makes sense.

“Hi,” my tiny voice says out loud in the scratchiest way.

“Hey, Sophia right?” He uses that side smile again and all I can think about is kissing it all over. I’m standing there and I realize I want his hands around my face, I want his tongue against mine and I want to feel his body pressed up against me.

“Right?” He asks again. I snap out of it.

“Yes, that’s right.”

He turns to his friends saying he’ll catch up with them later. Some of his friends smile, some laugh, some look really judgmental and this one chick just glares at me, like I have done something terrible to her. But eventually, they all continue down the hallway.

He puts his arm out in the direction of the door and says, “shall we go outside?”

“Yes, we shall.”  Yes, we shall, really? Good one Sophia.

He smiles to himself, walks to the door leading outside and opens it for me. Ooh, a gentleman.

“So what’s up?” he asks as we walk outside.

“Not much, how about you?”

His eyebrows rise and he looks confused. “You yelled hey from down the hallway, I figured you wanted to tell me something.”

“Well, technically I didn’t yell hey, my friend Rachel did,” I say pointing back to the school.

We both turn around and see Rachel with her hands up against the glass door looking through. She sees us and tries to not look suspicious. The kissing man laughs and I motion for her to leave.

“Okay, so then why did your friend yell hey?”

“Because I told her you were the kissing man.”

He eyes burn again with that craving look and he asks, “the kissing man?”

“Umm, yea.” I stutter. “I told her you were the man who kissed me in the stairwell.”

He nods his head, and I don’t know what else to say. My knees become weak and my throat becomes dry. I’m suddenly very intimated by this gorgeous, tall man talking to me. I sit down and look up at his face, having a difficult time trying to keep my eyes on his blue eyes and not his lips.

He looks as if he has something to say but waits a moment for beginning, “you want to do it again, don’t you?”

“Uhh, why would you say that?” I can feel the blood rush to my cheeks.

He crouches down and reaches out putting his hand against my cheek, so softly and gentle. His thumb rubs the redness of my cheek, which only makes me blush more.

“Because you can’t stop staring at my lips.”

I think if I blush anymore, my face will explode. “Yea I do,” I admit, surprising him and myself.

“Well then, how about a date first?” he asks.

I stand up feeling awful tiny, he stands up with me and puts his hands in his pockets.

“Sure.” I agree. He smiles

“You like movies?”

“Yes.”

“You free tomorrow night?”

“Yes.”

“Good, I’ll pick you up around 9:30?”

“Yes.”  Think of a better word Sophia.

“Yes,” he responds smiling, mocking me.

He asks for my phone and he punches in his number and gives me instructions to text him my address. Then he says he’ll see me tomorrow and walks away, without even a kiss on the cheek.

*****

The date went well. He picked me up right on time, showed me some cool songs on the drive over. He picked a murder mystery movie, 'The Girl on The Train,' which was phenomenal. He bought my ticket and popcorn and was a complete gentleman, almost too much. He didn’t make a single move. No arm around the shoulder, no hand on the leg, nothing. Maybe considering I’m twenty, that may be a bit childish but for a man that kissed a stranger in the hallway I figured handholding would be nothing in comparison.

We talked about the movie on the way back and he walked me up to my door. He kissed me on the cheek and said goodnight and got back in his car and drove away.

What the hell. Why didn’t he make a move? Why didn’t I make a move? I wanted to, lord knows I wanted to.

I decided men are just as confusing as women and went to bed.

*****

After a few days of not hearing him or seeing him, I debated texting him but decided against it. I didn’t want to be that girl.

After a long day, I was walking to the parking and I saw him, walking with his friends. “Hey,” I shouted this time. They all turned around. That girl rolled her eyes and he walked towards to me.

“Hey,” he said monotone.

“I never heard from you.”

“And I never heard from you.”

I stopped for a moment. “Touchè”. An awkward moment filled the silence and the yearning in his eyes had faded.

“Did you not have a good time?” I asked.

“I had a great time, did you?”

“Yea me too. It’s just-” I stopped.

“It’s just what?” he probed.

“It’s just you didn’t make a move.” He smiled a little.

“Was I suppose to?”

“Well, going from kissing me in the stairwell, being someone you’ve never met before. And then a couple days ago we had a good time and talked and there was nothing.”

“Well, why didn’t you make a move then?” he asked seriously wondering.

“Umm, I don’t know. I was nervous.”

“So was I,” he stated.

I looked confused. He explains, “look the stairwell was impulse. I saw you and to be honest, you were the most gorgeous woman I had even seen, and it may sound crazy but I had to kiss you. I couldn’t go the rest of however long it’d be until I saw you again wondering what the kiss would’ve been like. And I didn’t make a move on the date because I didn’t want you to think it was all physical.”

I processed this and just slightly nodded my head. The gentleman in him strikes again.

“Why don’t we start again?” he asks.

“Well, not from the very beginning, because to be honest, that was my favourite part,” I admit.

The corner of his mouth leans upward a little and he tries to hold back his smile.

“Hey!” we hear from behind us. We turn around and Rachel is walking up to us. She catches up and says hello, and asks me to introduce her.

“Sorry, Rachel this is…” And suddenly I blank.

Oh, my god. I don’t even know his name.

He looks disappointed, as he sticks out his hand and introduces himself to Rachel as Wade. She shakes his hand and smiles, “nice to meet you.”

He looks at me with sad puppy eyes and says he’s ‘gotta go’. And he walks away.

After he’s a fair distance away Rach looks at me puzzled. “Okay, what the hell just happened.”

“I didn’t know his name” I stumble.

“Seriously? Man, that’s harsh.”

“Shut up, I know.” I snap.

We walk over to my car and I get in a drive away.

*****

I spend all night contemplating whether I should just leave it alone, accept my embarrassment and walk away or go apologize. After hours of thinking, I decide.

The next day I wait in the parking lot, searching for him. He’s not hard to spot considering he’s about six foot two and has the hair as bright as the sun. I spot him walking with his friends on the edge of the parking lot. I’m determined, and I’m angry, with myself, not him.

I walk over and yell, “hey.”

He turns around and looks annoyed and yells back, “Wade is my name. Remember? Or maybe you don’t.”

Ouch. That was a little harsh.

“Look I’m sorry.”

He stops walking but doesn’t turn around. I can see his shoulders move as he takes a deep breath in.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know your name, but you never told me.”

Then he turns around and with a tiny voice says, “you never asked.”

That hit like a ton of bricks, I instantly feel terrible.

I walk up to him to explain, “look, I’m not a social butterfly. There around over a thousand people in this school, so no, I didn’t know your name. And I’m very sorry I didn’t ask, that is all on me. But that’s because your name didn’t matter.”

He looks offended and I explain further, “of course your name matters. I just mean I was having so much fun with who you are that it didn’t cross my mind, for some reason. Look we had this amazing kiss in the stairwell that day and you can’t deny the energy in that kiss. I apologize for being nervous and not asking routine questions but I have never had a kiss like that in my life, and I know that sounds silly because that was just a kiss, but you kissed me.”

I start walking around him to the curb and I stand on it. To try and be somewhat on his eye level.

“You kissed me, you grabbed my face and kissed me, you filled me with this extreme sensation then left me wanting more. And that’s not fair if you ask me. So…”

I grab his face in my hands this time and pull him in for a kiss. He is stiff at first but then melts into it just like I did the first time. Our tongues do the dance that they’ve done once before. I can feel his big hands wrap around my tiny waist as he pulls my body into his. We kiss for seconds? Minutes? I’m not entirely sure. All I could feel was the buzz in my lips as his brushed up against mine. I pull away eventually and say trying to catch my breath, “that’s payback for this kiss in the stairwell.”

The one girl snorts and I realize that was the girl that glared at me the first day. I look back at him and that burning sensation is back in his eyes. He picks me up and carries me over to the car. I wrap my legs around his waist and he pushes my back against the side door of his vehicle.

He pushes his tongue back against mine. His hands are under my butt, and he grabs it. And I like it. I try and push my body into him as much as I can, I run my hands through his hair and pull his face towards me, trying to get him as close to me as possible. We kiss with intense obsession, craving each other’s bodies. The energy between us is flying all around and eventually we run out of breath.

He mumbles in my hair “that’s payback for the kiss on the curb.” I smile to myself and then am suddenly aware that all his friends are staring.

Some starting hooting, some whistle and some look disgusted. Just like the first day I saw them.

“Oh, shut up,” Wade tells them with a childish grin on his face. He slowly puts me down and I coward behind him, very embarrassed. He grabs my hand squeezes it and pulls me in front of him.

“Uh, guys this is…..” he stops and whispers down in my ear, “what’s your name again?”

I laugh and slap his arm.

“This is Sophia,” he declares.

Everyone says hello, they’re all very polite considering what they just witnessed. The snarky girl says 'whatever' and walks away. We all kind of stand there for a moment, not exactly sure what to say or do. Wade says that we’ll catch up with them later. They all hoot some more and eventually leave.

I put my hands to my face trying to hide my shame. His fingers pull my hands away from my face, “don’t worry, they’ve all done stuff way worse than that.”

“Yes, but I haven’t.”

“Well, if you’d like to stick around you’re gonna have to get used to it. Because I don’t think I can control myself very well around you.”

I smile, grabbing his shirt slowly pulling him down towards me and say, “me neither.”