"If you wanna know -- if he loves you so -- it's there in his kiss -- that's where it is."
Every girl knows the Shoop Shoop song. Every girl memorizes its stirring lyrics.
Like her first kiss, once she hears them, she, never -- not for a single minute throughout her whole life -- forgets.
A long-ago girly-girl tune, it goes like this: "If it's love -- if it really is -- it's there in his kiss."
I am one of those girls. And it is a good thing. Because right now, it is how I know -- that he loves me so. Because there is no way in hell, this man would be kissing me like he is, if what is in my mouth -- were not his.
** Twenty minutes ago **
As the reader has already discerned, this is a story about a kiss -- one kiss. Like all kisses, complications surround it. In fact, for me, it is the single most complicated kiss ever.
The guy is handsome, sturdy, he is the kind of guy a girl looks up to. For him, there are no limits. For him, I surrender. That's how I see it.
At times, he frustrates me. He has an 'I don't give a shit' brand of nonchalance, some special indifference uniquely male. Sometimes, it annoys me. Most times it is thrilling.
I am in Newark. It is evening. I am alone. I sit patiently in hotel room 111, the one he told me to meet him in.
I pass the time by thinking about absolutes. Silly thoughts strike me, like absolute zero and absolute monarchy. Here, there is absolute silence -- and the early stages of absolute obedience.
I remind myself that he is not some absolute stranger. I know him -- a little, though not absolutely. That is because we did it -- once, well twice.
The sex was absolutely frantic. We tore and clawed one another -- absolutely. Then, as suddenly as it started -- it ended, as he was called away in the middle of the night.
Weeks passed before I heard back from him. Weeks! When I finally did, it was a text containing the oddest question: "Sheila -- how many?"
"How many?" I heard myself whisper. I glared at my phone as if the unusual question was the fault of the device. "How many?" I repeated, glaring more.
Thinking it was past time to get this man's full attention, I bluntly texted him a bunch of question marks, eight:?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?
He counter-texted a single word back to me: "Seriously?"
His tone, clearly one of surprise, drove me to think I had somehow shocked him.
Exasperated, I counter-texted more question marks, nine this time, for effect, in bold:?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?
After that, he went quiet. I assumed it meant he was either considering the obvious frustration in my responses or, he was gone again. Insisting to myself that either way, I did not care, I arrogantly turned my phone off.
Shortly after that, and par for the course, I grew antsy, thinking maybe a bunch of question marks displayed too much attitude for a guy like him.
With some hesitation, I chilled my otherwise overheated indignation, waffled, but then put things off again, thinking, I still have my pride! I decided to wait, but just in case, I powered my phone back on.
An hour went by -- nothing. No call, no messages -- nothing! Naturally, I folded and laying my cards face up on the great poker table of relationships, I touched my finger to his number. Predictably, he did not pick up.
Shit, I thought. Now what? My better judgment said warm to him, so I shot him another message, thinking maybe he was just not a text kind of guy. Tapping hurriedly, this time, I upped the question marks to eleven:?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?-?
Something changed because barely an instant later, I received the following: "Sheila -- on the eleventh, be at the Hotel Indigo in Newark. Room 111 -- 11:11 P.M."
I waited a couple -- well, it was more like half a minute, and then tapped out a warmish response: "Sounds like fun." I hit send, all the while wondering what this was all about.
After that, he went quiet again, and I figured it was about time for me to check my hectic schedule. Was I even free on the 11th at 11:11? My finger pounced -- a little too vigorously -- on my phone's calendar icon
Lo and behold, my ordinarily eventful itinerary just happened to be clear. Then something struck me, and I thought, really? The 11th? Why the fucking delay? The eleventh is...it's not for eleven more days! For God's sake! Eleven days! "Hey," I said out loud. "What the fuck is this?"
My slow-motion girl clock immediately kicked in and the time dragged by. But right on schedule, the eleventh happened by too. In anticipation of seeing him, I did everything he wanted and some things he did not want. I did not shave my pussy. He claims it makes grown women look pre-pubescent.
And, though I was sure it violated some sacred feminist commandment, I shaved my legs -- baby-ass smooth. I had my hair done, the way he likes, adding some reddish highlights. But, I kept it loose because he likes that too. I wore black pumps, a skirt -- black leather. It fit just right, and I dropped a lipstick into my purse -- blood red -- because he likes blood red!
At the hotel, I stopped at the main desk and asked for the key to Room 111. Without so much as a glance at my I.D, the condescending bitch of a clerk handed it over, explaining in a twangy, insinuating, New Jersey voice, "There's elevators down the hall, sweetie, and to your right." I gave her a look, then turned away.
Upstairs, I found an empty queen-sized bed. The room seemed untouched, so I sat down and glanced at my phone. It was exactly eleven o'clock. I waited. Eleven minutes later, I heard the sound of a plastic key slip into the door lock and nervously watched as his tall, lean form passed into my regal presence.
He smiled, but just a little -- a kind of half smile. Some would call it a smirk -- a half-smirk.
"Glad you found the room all right," he sort of half-growled.
"Sure," I daintily retorted.
His sharp eyes scanned the place, and, as if the surroundings he had paid for needed his approval, he nodded. After that, he stepped to the window where, moving the sheer aside, he glanced out at the building across the street, apparently checking for snipers.