Flowers in the Par

Alex turned to give Wes one final look before she shut and locked her door. She leaned back against it, her hands clasped together over her chest as she smiled and recalled their evening together. She knew she was falling for this man she'd only met yesterday, but so far, he had been exactly what she needed to help her move on from her failed engagement.

She dug out her phone and sent her friend Lori a message -

"Talked for 90 minutes, then walked to eat pizza, then he walked me to my door and he kissed me twice. So much to talk about tomorrow!"

She sent the message, and then got ready for bed. She couldn't remember when she felt so excited, but she was glad that there was a bright light again in her life.

Tuesday morning was a repeat of the previous day for Alex. She was smiling when she got up, smiling as she took a shower, smiling as she prepared her breakfast and packed her lunch for the day, smiling on the drive to school, and smiling as her friend Lori popped into her classroom before the students arrived so she could follow up on the text Alex had sent her the night before.

"Kissing? Already? What happened to taking this slowly?"

Alex blushed as her smile got bigger. "It seemed appropriate - we were together for much longer last evening than either of us anticipated. Have you ever had one of those times when you can't believe over three hours had elapsed and you felt like you could have continued talking all night? It's just so comforting to talk to Wes - it's hard to describe it!"

Lori nodded. "I know what you mean, and I'm glad that you're feeling it. But kissing already? Was it good?"

"Of course it was - it was so good that after the first one, I initiated the second one, and it was longer. Lori, I know this is probably stupid, but after just two days with him, I'm really starting to like him very much! I know it's way too early for that. But I also know that it's been so refreshing to be open with him knowing that he's being equally open with me. He told me that he'd not been on a lot of second dates when he told them about his son, so he asked me straight out if that was going to be a problem for me."

Lori's eyes opened wide. "What did you say?"

"I told him that I didn't think so, especially when he used his son to approach me in the first place. I might need little Wesley around as a buffer between me and his dad as we move along!"

Lori giggled as the chime rang in the school to let the teachers know that the kids were heading to their classrooms. "Planning period - I need to hear more!" She waved back at Alex as she left the class.

Alex remembered to silence her phone and put it in the middle drawer of her desk. Her students came into her class noisily as usual, and she got busy with their morning lessons. Her schedule for Tuesday was different than Monday, so her shared planning period with Lori wasn't until after lunch. She finally got her first break during mid-morning during recess, and after a quick trip to the restroom, she checked her phone, finding a message from Wes.

"Good morning, Alex! Hope you are having a great day. How about a walk this evening to enjoy the sunset over the lake?"

Alex smiled to herself as she replied,

"Sounds lovely. How about I walk to your apartment and meet you there?"

She sent the message and then got ready for her next lesson before the kids returned from recess. When it was lunchtime, she told Lori again that she wasn't ready to talk about this in the teacher's workroom, and Lori nodded. The finally got a chance to have some time together on their planning period after a quick lesson with kids.

She went into Lori's classroom this time, and before she could even get sit down, Lori said, "We have to do some real school planning during this time, but what else did you need to tell me about last night?"

Alex laughed. "I'm not sure I NEED to tell you anything, but WANT might be a different subject. We decided that we would see each other only outside of our apartments, and that spending time in each other's apartments might create a situation where we are moving too quickly, and we really want to take this slow for now and let it develop naturally."

Lori muttered, "Whatever" under her breath.

"What? You don't think that's a good plan?"

Lori looked up at Alex. "Oh, it's a fine plan, but it's not going to last long."

"Why do you say that?"

Lori put her pen down to focus on Alex. "You're going home this weekend, right?"

Alex nodded.

"Coming back on Sunday afternoon, as usual?"

Again, Alex nodded.

"Alex, you are lucky to have a friend like me that can predict the future. Here's what is going to happen. You're going to leave after school on Friday to go see your family, and about an hour into your trip, you're going to start missing Wes like crazy. It's going to be a long weekend for you without him, so by the time you get back on Sunday, you're not going to want to meet him in the clubhouse room or on the walking path. He will end up in your apartment or you will end up in his apartment by Sunday evening."

"Are you crazy?" Alex replied. "That's not going to happen - we're old enough and smart enough to follow through with this plan! You have little faith in me!"

Lori laughed. "If it was just you, I might believe you could do it, but since there is someone else involved - someone you're spent a LOT of time with the past two days - I don't think you'll be able to make a decision to not go into one of your apartments after being apart from Thursday night to Sunday evening. Shall we make it interesting with a little wager? I know how much you like M&M's - I'll bet you five pounds of M&M's that by Monday morning, you'll have dropped your little 'no apartment' plan."

Alex laughed. "You are on - I can hardly wait to have all that free candy around. Make it peanut - you know that's my favorite!" The she paused and looked up at her friend. "It is pretty quick, isn't it? I keep thinking back to Anthony and trusting him so fully, and then being hurt by him. I'm trying to discover things that might be different with Wes, so I don't have to go through that again, but I'm struggling, and it makes me nervous."

Lori put her hand on top of her friend's, and replied, "I can think of two very different things with Wes. First, he seems to be as lonely as you are. When you started with Anthony, he already had a well-established circle of friends, and that included girls as well as boys. And second, Wes appears to be a great father to a cute little boy, and Anthony was not. I don't know why, but I think both of those are very significant.

"I know Anthony hurt you bad, so that makes you want to be more careful this time. That's fine, but don't let those bad feelings about Anthony shut out what might be a very special relationship with Wes. I trust you to make the best decisions for both you and Wes. You need to trust yourself as well."

Alex wiped away a little moisture that had started forming in the corner of her eye. "You're right, Lori. What I know is that these last two days have been wonderful, but I'm so afraid it's going to end up being an illusion. I think Wes understands the pain I went through, so that might help us as we continue. And he does have a cute little boy, that much is certain! You've been such a good friend through all of this, Lori. How will I ever repay you for taking care of me?"

Lori smiled. "You can give Wes a chance to see where this goes, without the fear that looms over you from what Anthony did to you. If you want to make it up to me, then just be happy, because that's what I want to see from you the most! And don't be late bringing me my M&M's!"

Alex checked her phone to find a message from Wes.

"Sounds great. I just looked it up - sunset is at 6:15 this evening. Can you pick me up about 30 minutes before that?"

Alex smiled and showed Lori the message, and she responded, saying, "A sunset walk tonight? That candy is as good as mine!"

Alex shook her head as she answered Wes -

"I'll be there at 5:45!"

The rest of the afternoon was routine for Alex. She left the school a little after 4:00, bringing worksheets to grade at home with her. The clock moved slowly, and once again, she found herself wanting to go straight to Wes' apartment. But she kept thinking of the importance of going slowly at this, and she didn't want to come across as appearing to be too needy. So she straightened up some things that didn't need to be straightened as she watched the sun slowly sinking towards the horizon.

At 5:35, she couldn't wait any longer. Donning a light jacket to ward off the chill of a cool fall afternoon, she made her way across the grounds of the complex to Wes' apartment. She climbed the two flights of stairs leading to the walkway of his three-story building, silently being grateful for having a ground floor unit. She was five minutes early, but she couldn't wait. She knocked, and stepped back, trying to contain a smile.

Wes opened the door, smiling back at her. "Hello, Alex! So good to see you again. It seems like it's been so long! I guess twenty or so hours can really drag!"

"Hello, Wes. I was thinking the same thing. In fact, I might be a little early. I hope you don't mind!"

He shook his head. "Not at all. Let me grab my jacket and I'll be right out." He left his door open wide enough that Alex could see his apartment was configured the same way as hers, only with a reverse floorplan. She could also see that it was neat and somewhat sparsely furnished. Wes came back to the door with his jacket already on. Pulling the door shut, he held out his hand to Alex and said, "Shall we?"

The two went down the stairs together, hand in hand. For a while they said nothing, enjoying each other's presence after a day apart. Once they got to the lake path, they shared bits about their day with each other, and then laughed at the notion that they almost sounded like an old married couple.

Alex felt she should share her bet with him. "So my friend Lori doesn't think we can keep up our plan to stay out of each other's apartment. She's so certain, in fact, that we made a bet today, with the loser having to bring the winner five pounds of M&M's."

Wes laughed and replied, "Oh, such high stakes! So how long do we have to hold out?"

"The loser has to pay off the winner on Monday morning. Surely we can hold out until then, can't we? She thinks that my long weekend at home will have me missing you so much that we'll cave and break our pact on Sunday evening when I return. Are we that weak?"

Wes paused as they continued walking. "Honestly, I'm pretty sure I will miss you while you are gone. After all, we've known each other for three days now, and we've never spent a day apart from each other. There's nothing going to make that any easier come this weekend. But as much as I love M&M's, we just have to try to hold out for the win!"

They arrived at the spot on the lake known as the 'sunset bench.' The apartment complex had put a few benches at the spot where the sun sets in front of them, with the lake in between, often creating a double sunset scene in the reflection of the water. They sat down and immediately scooted closer to each other, still holding hands.

After a couple of minutes of silence, Alex asked, "What will you do this weekend while I'm gone?"

Wes sighed. "Every other weekend, I have Wes, and those weekends are usually very busy. When I don't have him, they drag out forever. Sometimes I go out with friends from the office, but many of them are married and I don't want to be a third wheel. Since dating hasn't gone too well, I've pretty much given up on that...well, at least until I found you, and I'm so glad Wesley pointed you out to me!"

Alex giggled and leaned her head against Wes' shoulder as he continued. "But since I don't have Wes this weekend, it will be slow and boring. I'll get my laundry done on Saturday afternoon since that seems to be when the machines are the least busy. After that, maybe a little TV, or I might bring a work project home and do some work on it. How will your weekend be?"

Alex thought about her days to come. "It will be good. I'll get home just in time to see most of my brother's football game. Then I'll go to my families' house for the rest of the time until I come home Sunday afternoon. I'm sure they are going to want to hear about you. My sister and I will probably go shopping, but there's not a lot of places to go where I live, so that won't last long. This will be my fifth weekend home since my break-up, and really, I've been using them to recharge and to be around people who love me. My family has helped me through this, and I know they worry about me."

Wes held her hand tighter as the sun began its dip beneath the horizon. The sky lit up with hues of purple, yellow and orange as it shown against the few clouds on the horizon. In a few minutes, the sun disappeared, leaving its warm glow in the sky.

"Wes, I just realized something. Usually it makes me sad on Sunday afternoon when I have to leave my family to come back to the city. But I think this Sunday, for some reason I'm going to be ready to get back."

She looked up at Wes. They shifted on the bench to face each other, and Wes bent down to kiss Alex on the lips, cupping the back of her head as they held each other. They kissed for only a few seconds, but to them, it seemed longer. When they finished, Alex put her head back on his shoulder.

"Wes, are we going to fast? I don't want to mess this up."

Wes chuckled and said, "You may be asking the wrong person that question. The last time I got this close to a girl, I had a son nine months later! We're taking it much slower than then!"

Alex chuckled lightly, and then looked up at Wes as he continued. "I promise you this much - I don't know if we are taking it too fast or not, but it feels so right to me, and I promise I will never hurt you. I don't know where this is going to lead, but I hope it goes on for a very long time. But if not, I will not treat you like you were treated before."

He bent down and they kissed again. "Thank you, Wes. I believe you, and I also hope that we go for a very long time."

They stood up as the twilight settled around them. Wes insisted on walking Alex back to her apartment since it was getting dark. As they walked, he said, "Maybe we should try to stay away from each other tomorrow, just to see if we can do it. I think messaging would be okay, but let's wait until our date Thursday night to see each other."

Alex thought for a bit, and then replied, "That will at least show my friend that we don't have to be with each other every day. But I'm going to miss you tomorrow!"

Pointing to his building, he said, "I'll miss you too, but I'll just be right over there, so in a way, we won't be by ourselves. That might help us make it through!"

They arrived at Alex's door and kissed again, long and passionately like on the bench. "Goodnight, Alex. Thanks for the walk and the sunset. See you on Thursday!"

"Goodnight, Wes. I'm looking forward to our date already!"

She shut and locked the door, again leaning back against it like the previous night. She still had worries about moving too quickly, but every minute she spent with Wes reduced those worries and made some of them go away. She already knew that it was going to be difficult not to see him tomorrow, and she wondered how she was going to manage the weekend without him.