I exhaled and sunk into the couch, my head resting against a pillow, holding my phone in front of my face. She was on the other end, looking at me, smiling, making herself comfortable, too. It was late, dark. Both of our houses were quiet and still, yet we still spoke just above a whisper. She took a long sip from her glass of white wine and then giggled.
"What?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said, looking at me through her phone. "Say something."
"That was nice."
"Always."
My heart still raced. To this day, after everything we've been through and everything we've done, I still get nervous with her. The butterflies have never gone away. "I love these nights when we're both alone," I said.
"I know. Me, too." She smiled and shyly looked away.
"I've been looking forward to this for weeks. No joke," I said. We had been talking about this Facetime session for a long time. "I wasn't sure it was actually going to happen."
"You know I've wanted it to," she said, almost defensively. "It's hard, you know? I'm so busy."
"No, no, no. I know. I know. Me, too. I'm just saying. I'm glad it happened." I smiled at her.
She smiled back. "Me, too."
I reached to pull the blanket up to cover my naked legs. I took a sip of my whiskey. It burnt as I swallowed it down, but helped slow my pounding heart. She was laying on her stomach, looking into her phone, right at me. Her hair hung over her bare shoulders, her gorgeous breasts pressed against the bed, pushed together into a deep, sexy cleavage.
"That looks nice," I said, nodding toward her chest, with a smirk.
She laughed. "You didn't get enough? You want more?"
"I always want more of you! It's never enough. You know that!" We both laughed. "So, were you wearing the shoes?"
"I told you I was!"
"Yeah, you did, but I didn't get to
see
them."
"You seemed to like what you saw!" She laughed.
"Well, obviously," I said, sheepishly. "But I'd still like to see the shoes."
She smiled, and then put down her phone, face down. My screen went black, but I could hear movement on her end. She picked up the phone and I could see her again.
She was sitting up, leaning against the back of her bed. "Ready?"
"Yes, please!"
She turned the phone around and pointed it towards her feet. There were her red shoes, my favorite ones, at the end of her smooth, bare legs. Her cute toes, painted dark red, peeked out from underneath the sexy ruffles. She moved them side to side, pivoting on the heels spiked into the bed.
"Oh my God, I love them so much! So you were wearing them the whole time?"
She turned the phone back around and looked right at me. "Yes! I told you I was!"
"That's so fucking hot. I want to do so many dirty things to them."
She just laughed.
"I mean it!"
"I know you do!" she said. "So then, when are you going to?"
My heart raced. "Three weeks," I paused, and then asked, "right?"
"You sure you want to?" she asked.
"Oh my God, yes. You just tell me when and where, and I will be there. I've been dying to see you forever."
We both sipped our drinks. After a few seconds of silence, she asked, "Why didn't we ever have sex?"
"Back in high school?"
"Yes!"
"Well," I paused. "In three weeks we won't have to ask that question ever again! Right?"
She smiled. "You're funny."
"I mean it!"
"I know! But," she paused. "Why didn't we?"
"I don't know," I shook my head and answered disbelievingly. "I wish I had a better answer. I think about it a lot."
"Me too." She sighed. "Timing, right? It was always the wrong time."
"I guess. Maybe. But we made time to do plenty of other things, didn't we?" I said.
She laughed. "Yeah, we did. I always just didn't think you wanted to."
"Wanted to what?"
"To have sex, silly!"
"Of course I did! It would've been really nice to have done it with you back then." I smiled. "You could've been my first!"
"I
should've
been your first," she said, emphatically.
"I know, I know. I don't know why, but I was always, just, so nervous."
Like I was right now.
"But why? I was nothing to be nervous about."
"Don't sell yourself short. You were fucking hot in high school."
"Stop," she said, with a laugh.
"No really! You were sexy. Something about you. You've always just, been
sexy
." I said with a raise of my eyebrows. "But...I just...I was...I dunno."
"So many missed chances." She sighed, taking a sip.
"I know! All those times in dark parking lots, on couches watching movies, in my basement," I said.
"Third floor cafeteria," she interjected, with a laugh.
"Ha! Imagine that! We could've had sex in the school cafeteria. That's hilarious!"
"Oh my God, how funny," she said, raising her wine glass to her lips.
We both fell silent for a minute. I know my mind focused on those memories, still so vivid. My fingers traced the rim of my glass and I looked away from the phone. "You know what I've always thought was our best chance?"
"When?" she asked.
"When I came to visit you at college. Neither of us were dating anyone at the time. And we had your dorm room all to ourselves!"
She giggled. "I remember. I worked that out with my roommates."
"You did? Yeah, I mean, I guess I figured. God, why didn't we have sex then?"
"I don't know! Why didn't you try?" she asked.
"Well, why didn't you?"
"I didn't think you wanted to."
"I did, so bad. But, I was nervous," I said. "You did go down on me."
"I remember." She smiled, proudly.
"You were wearing red panties, I remember that. They were on one minute and then they were all of a sudden they were off. I didn't understand how. I remember asking you and you just said, 'I'm good like that.'" I laughed.
"I can't believe you remember all these details! My memory is so bad!"
"Well, I used to think about it a lot. I would think about you a lot. All throughout college. To be honest," I paused. "I've never told you this."
"Told me what?" she asked inquisitively.
"I had this picture of you, from your birthday freshman year. You had emailed it to me. You were wearing a tank top, pretty low-cut. I'd use that for, ummm, inspiration."
"Oh yeah? What kind of inspiration?" she asked cheekily.
"Oh, I think you know." We both laughed.
"Oh my God, that's so funny!"
"I'd think about the things we did. I've never really stopped thinking about it all. You've always been able to turn me on so much. Still to this day."
"There really is a connection."
"Yeah, there is." I felt it again in my stomach.
The butterflies
. "I mean, look at where we are now. It's been almost 20 years. We're still sneaking off to be together. I don't regret it for one second."
"Me neither."
Silence.
I spoke first. "Sooo."
"So yourself," she replied.