the beginning of something beautiful.

I sat down across from you, ordered a beer, made some ridiculous comment, fiddled with my keys, and nervously avoided your eyes.

You were avoiding mine, too, and my anxious mind kept wondering why, hoping for the best, but fearing the worst.

We made that waitress so damn mad because we couldn't shut up long enough to even look at the menu. Your eyes kept me nervously glancing away, those spirals of green, gold, and brown, what I would later call exploding galaxies... we kept laughing, eventually figured out what we wanted, drank beer. You mentioned Colin Kaepernick and Black Lives Matter and my knees went weak under the table, where you couldn't see. I could smell the mixture of your spearmint gum and cologne drifting across the table top once, twice, three times, and each time wished that we were anywhere but here, somewhere I could be wrapped up in you, that smell all over me...

In my car until 3 AM, listening to Brand New and Julia Nunes and Foo Fighters and all of the things that made us the same person when we were younger. I played Make Out to hint to you that that's exactly what I wanted to do. Eventually you caught the hint.

Under the stars, the top of my Jeep open, your lips latched on to mine, pulled close, that smell, those eyes connecting with me in all of the ways I had wanted so badly--

So pay attention now, I'm standing on your porch screaming out, and I won't leave until you come downstairs...