A Bottle of Merlot & a First Date!

April 17th,2021!

A Bottle of Merlot

& A First Date!

Written by,

Jennifer Cooley!

ILLUSTRATION BY KATIE BENN

We met as teenagers; I was 16 going on 17, she was 15 going on 16. I was a nightrider, one who lead a mysterious life at night, and a student in school during the day. I with my black hair and piercings stood out against the other students in our school. She was quiet, a plain Jane (at least to her). She dressed normally as normal goes, though to me Allison stood out. Something was different about her, even if she didn't know it! Her closest friends were people she knew since early childhood. Now in high school, things change; people change, friendships become different.

Everyone going through new stages in life, like dating, and parties, getting drunk, their first hangover, and even the opportunity to try drugs. All this mixed in with how most have sex for the first time. Not her: she was still innocent, wholesome (without being naive), pure, still untouched in so many of these ways. It was like she wore this invisible halo over her head, that at times I swear I could see. It would seem by the grace of God Allison had this guardian Angel protecting her from these things.

Popularity was never really her game. Allison just wanted to be different, to feel special from everyone else in some way. What she was looking for was some deeper kind of treasure, that she just couldn't ever see was right there. We couldn't have been more opposite as opposites go. I had long since been an expert in all those things in life that these people I was going to school with were just getting started in. Though in the first year of our friendship, Allison would inevitably be given a taste of some things that I couldn't shield her from, even if I wanted to, she continued to go safely through life unscathed by it though.

At 16 I worked nights and had bills to pay and food to put on the table for myself and whoever was living with me at the time (which changed frequently for someone like me). I didn’t live at home with normal parents like my classmates did. I had this tough guy persona, (the underdog), I could get laid anytime I liked with just about anyone of my choosing. If it was drugs you wanted it was drugs I could get you any kind, any amount! You name it I was within reach of it. Allison had this long golden straight hair and this naturalness to her that I loved and admired. She didn’t need to wear any make-up at all. She had the kind of face where just putting on a simple pair of nice glasses looked good on her. She never saw it that way, it seems only I did!

Allison opened up to me so easily right from the first time we met. She had no problem disclosing her troubles of how she couldn’t get a boyfriend, and I of course was always there eager to listen and try and help her through everything that bothered her. I myself could never see why she would ever have a problem finding a boyfriend, but she just couldn’t. This amazing person just couldn’t even get a first date with a boy from school. The guys just didn’t seem to ask her. She didn’t seem to know what her type of guy was, and I guess in some subconscious way it worked as some kind of repellent with the guys at school since it wasn’t her looks that was keeping them away.

I must have in some way always been entertaining the idea, in my dreams or someplace, that I would forget on a conscious level, that I could be with her. That it could be me! That maybe there was something more than what met the eye. Why shouldn’t it be? Why couldn’t it be me? To be the one to take her, with her heart so carefully held in my hand, and let her experience how special she wanted to feel, a coming together like she would never forget! I could introduce her to the idea the possibility of another realm, that maybe just maybe she was different in a way she didn’t ever suspect!

* * * * *

I was the kind of girl that most guys dreamt of giving it up to, at least once before they grew up and fell in love. I was the girl they would make all those promises to, that they would someday keep ‘alright’, only with the simple nice girls who grew up in the kind of life as my Allison did, my lifeline to the other side, my best friend! Allison was the kind of girl any one of those so-called good guys who took her home would be warmly excepted with open arms by their families. The kind of girl that any family would be proud of their sons for making (her) their wife! She would be the wife that could happily raise children in a healthy and functioning home environment, one like I never knew.

Maybe I was more jealous of Allison than I had ever known, and so that is why I started thinking about her in this kind of way. Maybe I was looking for a way to take at least one girl out of the grasps of those boys who were so willing to give it up to sleep with a girl like me, so that maybe I could have it all, instead of it being one of them. The idea of just once changing that outcome, that fate, and go whirling and twirling with her in another direction, into another world one that Allison may not have wanted to find her way out of? I could have, I should have, but I didn't, and now she is out there, alone somewhere, trying to find her place in the world. Would it have really done so much harm to have gone that way once with our friendship?

Its not like Allison would have fallen for me, it's not like it would have been me she’d of wanted to be with, or that I could have been the one to win her heart. In all the years of our friendship sexuality was the one topic or issue that never came up, though it could have; things between us were open enough, it just never surfaced.

11 years is a long time to have a friendship with someone, and this kind of honesty and truth, it is worthy of, so I am not going to let it slip by without mentioning it when I see her again. And I will see her again, she will come back because home is where her heart is, and Allisons’ home is and has always been here with me! When we last were together she finally had a boyfriend to call her own, but she could never bring herself to introduce him to me. Looking back on it now I’m wondering why? On that particular visit she told me that I was a very powerful kind of person and that when I walked into a room I would take it over, as though there was no space for anyone else outside of those whom I wanted there; and Allison didn’t know if that was something she could have her guy around. I never thought twice about all that at the time, but I wonder now if there was a deeper meaning, a deeper level, an underlying message in it all? I mean really, how could I just be in the same room as her boyfriend and scare him off like that or something: so, I'm left to wonder now if maybe she was at that point in her life wondering about herself in that way, and whether or not it was true?

Or if maybe how at home I was in her life, gave me away, only rather than say anything to me, instead kept me away from someone who might have seen something, and wouldn't have thought twice about speaking out over what they (he) saw? Maybe she was looking to hide it from me knowing that if I saw her not feeling at home around her boyfriend, or not looking truly, happy to be with him, that I would say something to her? Only never wanting to be the cause or the culprit, (at least not on a conscious level), I never allowed myself to see the signs; I just always wanted to be her friend, a genuine friend, and didn’t want to risk losing that, from what kind of distasteful disaster something of this nature could mean if I were to have guessed wrong!

I can think of all too many times where Allison spent the night in my home, sleeping like an Angel on my futon, while I would lie awake in my room, trying to keep thoughts from crossing my conscious mind; now that we are so much older I’m not afraid of it anymore, but I still don’t know how far Allison would go, or if in fact she has ever entertained the idea of being with another woman, or if it has always just been me? If she has thought about it why should I have the Audacity to think that in her mind she would let her first time, her first time for everything and anything that along with doing this could mean, be with me?

What this, would do to our friendship I do not know? I just know that I would like to show her my great love and deep appreciation and admiration that I have for her and our friendship that we have had for so many years, in the only way I know how. I don't know what this will say or mean to Allison about me and what we've had all these years? I just hope I don't lose our friendship trying to find out?!

With a deep breath, Allison looks up from the pages of her best-friends diary. She just can't bring herself to read anymore!

* * * * *

All Allison could think now, was why? Why had she picked up Lee's diary and read it?

"A women's diary is her own," she said to herself. " I know better than to do something like this!" Allison said as she placed the diary back on the table, trying to place it in exactly the same spot Lee left it in. Allison then swiftly got up from her chair and headed towards the bathroom. Halfway down the hall, she could hear Lee's shower was still going, telling her Lee was still in it. So she quickly returned to the kitchen, where she looked for and found a pen. She then frantically shuffled through piles of paper trying to find a blank piece that she could write on. Unable to find something and worried that Lee would be coming out of the bathroom at any moment now, she picked up Lee's diary and opened it to the back of the book, and carefully tore out a blank page. She then scribbled out a note to excuse herself, put the pen down next to it, turned around, and grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter, and left Lee's Apt.

It was just too much to digest; Allison knew that she just wouldn't have been able to look at Lee much less keep her composure, if she had stayed. " I need time!" Allison said, out loud to herself as she was getting off the elevator and running out the front doors to her car…

"Time!"

* * * * *

Lee stepped out of the shower and grabbed her towel from the rack, then wrapped herself in it; walked over and opened her bathroom door and walked down the hall towards Allison whom she knew was waiting for her, only to Lee's surprise, Allison wasn't in the living room, so she went and checked the kitchen; where she found a note on the table instead of Allison!? Lee sat down picked up the note and started to read it. It read:

Lee,

Sorry I couldn't stay. My brother phoned me and it seems something has come up that he needs my help with. I will explain further when we speak next on the phone.

Allison.

Lee placed the note back on the table and stood up and unconsciously moved to her living room to give herself space between her and her diary at this moment. "It sure must have been urgent," Lee said to herself? "It's not like Allison to just leave a note?" They had long since grown accustomed to one another; so the two of them sharing one bathroom together was not unusual, lots of girls do that! It was a habit of Lee's to leave the bathroom door unlocked whenever Allison was over. Known for her politeness Allison has said many times over the years, that a note simply doesn't do, it's just not good enough; so for Allison it was a custom to inform Lee personally when something came up calling her away. "Well, I had better not make too much of this, there is always a first time for everything," Lee said, as she got up from the chair and headed to her room to get dressed.

Halfway to her room, Lee stopped dead in her tracks, turned around and went back to the kitchen table and picked up the note. And took a closer look at the piece of paper. In the hallway it had hit Lee suddenly that the paper the note was written on looked awfully familiar. Then without a second thought she remembered having left her diary on the table.

Lee picked up her diary and flipped through the empty pages till she found at the back of the book where a page had been carefully torn from. She fit the note to the tears in the book knowing they would be a perfect fit, then closed the book. Had Allison read her diary? And all that Lee had written about her, thinking her private thoughts were safe? Lee quickly went over to the phone, picked up the receiver and dialed star 69 to hear the number of the last incoming call. It wasn't Allison's brother!

With nauseating disbelief, Lee hung up the receiver. " This can't be happening, not now, not like this!" She remarked out loud to herself. " Of course not, this isn't what it looks like, Allison would never read my diary!" But Lee's inner voice had more to say on the matter. If Allison thought you two shared everything with one another and saw your diary sitting there, why would she think there was anything wrong with reading it, reading about stuff she already knew? Would you honestly if you saw her diary alone in the same room as you (have) the strength to resist reading about all those good and bad times you've both shared together?

If you were so careless enough to leave your diary lying where Allison could see it, why wouldn't she have believed that you probably wouldn't mind, otherwise why would you have left her alone in the same room with it? " THAT'S ENOUGH!" Lee managed to stammer loudly to herself. Then telling herself that Allison would never do that, she'd never think like that. Not with the kind of mannerisms she has. I'm quite simply just over- reacting, and that's that! She just couldn't find any paper to write on that’s all! Lee told herself.

Lee, sure now that Allison would have a reasonable explanation, got up from the couch where she had been sitting again for the last few minutes going over everything in her head confused and as a ball of emotions still wrapped in her towel, went to her room to finally get dressed!

* * * * *

The First Date!

Part 2!

Merlot!

Allison knew that she had to do something about it, she couldn’t leave things the way they are, it had been a few days now and Lee hadn’t tried to call her so, either Lee had no idea, or worse she had figured it out? So, Allison walked over to her desk and pulled open her top drawer and bent over and started shuffling through everything in it, looking for her work and the work she’d collected of Lee’s over the last decade that they were friends, and put the books on top of her desk!

She pulled her chair back and sat down in front of the books and took a breath knowing with this time of quick review that it meant if they were in fact going to come to terms with what’s always been right in front of them both and this time now that they were in their 20’s and a little older, hold nothing back and allow themselves the time to explore without further hesitation; ‘full steam ahead as the saying goes’ that it’s now or never Allison took a deep breath and opened the pages to both books the one written by Lee, was under a different name Allison had learned quickly to understand the duality of Lee and having a 2 sided life, and in order to keep some semblance of order and privacy she knew why Lee felt she had to do things the way she did!

She never brought it up, she never rocked the boat, and she was also almost never at any of the events Lee ever performed at, when there were open mic nights, or poetry readings etc… and it was only NOW that Allison was understanding WHY Lee NEVER BROUGHT IT UP, NEVER MENTIONED IT, NEVER ASKED Allison… “Why don’t I ever see you in the audience when I look out over the crowd from the stages I take a stand on?” But Allison now knew that Lee could tell her side of the story without worry or judgment or outcome or response and reaction from Allison had she heard anything that was ever written that she might have suspected, thought or just out right known had been written about her, or about the both of them!

Allison was grateful for finally being able to explain so much to Lee, she felt terrible about what it was, that she had betrayed, a simple trust of knowing you don’t read another person’s diary in order to get to this moment and time and place in their lives, in their story between each other as the reason for what made this happen, but she was none the less still grateful that it was finally going to happen!

But before closing both the books she couldn’t resist reading a few pieces and reminiscing over the days in which they were either first written and performed and read by Allison back in the beginning of it all!

~ Morning Dew~

A drop of morning dew

taste like honey;

is what I knew

it should have been with you,

from just that gentle

smooth, soft, subtle

shared in that untested

kiss;

never finished

with you!

~ Place and Time ~

Dancing in the world

Divorcing all the signs,

Understanding what is wrong

With this place and time

Nothing left to be said,

Except to silence the voice

In my head;

As I climb under the covers

Into bed again

Without you!

~ She ~

For all those years

that I lived in that lifestyle,

you were that hit...

that fit...

The ‘one’ wearing the clothes

that described the way I felt inside

before,

turning over to a life of learning new love;

A kindness and solitude that doesn’t need

push and shove.

softer touches... orgasms without pain,

to love someone... ‘saying’ there name;

not to punish and be cruel

to get that hit... and feel that fix...

over the angrier life forced upon us to live;

from damage in our youth... which goes unspoken...

a choice between, living or dying for God!

What can we do about the separation between us two?

It’s all about being real,

when needing something to feel.

Looking back on it all now

I shake my head,

as I confront the truth

and my point of view

over the attraction I had towards you!

When she was done reading she grabbed for her special hand-made soft book page and carefully put the books in there and closed the lid and did the flap up by pushing the large round wooden button through the hole made in the closing part of the bags lid made just for it. She threw the strap around her neck while getting up from the chair and headed to where her keys were, grabbed them and her jacket turned out the lights and left her home, closed and locked the door, for what she knew would be the last time of a life that she will never return home to ever being the same.

Only moment’s away will the future of where her side of the confession will go and how Lee will choose to embrace what should have been told to her and shared with her some time ago? Allison was excited at the same time as she was anxious, she really did hope this would fix it all for Lee, (these last few days at least) she thought to herself!

* * * * *

Lee opened her door before Allison entered, because she could hear the sound of that standard green frog parking in her driveway, she could hear Allison coming down the road in that car from anywhere, a mile away. Allison had a love hate relationship with that first car her father bought for her back when she was 16 when he was still alive. He was a great man her Dad, he worked hard to provide and provided well for his family, but he also wanted to teach his children value and responsibility and boy did Allison ever learn that lesson well from him because she still insists on driving that green standard car he bought for her for only $500.00. She couldn’t bare to completely give it up it’s the greatest last major thing that took place between them as far as father and daughter bonding goes. Yes, she did buy another car but she just can’t quite give the one her Dad taught her to drive up forever, it’s a kind of goodbye forever RIP with her Dad she’s still just not quite ready to have!

As she entered Lee’s home Lee didn’t waste any time…

Lee

“Yes, I DID FIGURE OUT that you READ my diary, it took me a couple of minutes to fit the piece of paper you ripped out of my diary to the back of my book where you took it from! So, I had the common sense to check the phone and the last number dialed and not be surprised to discover that your brother wasn’t the last person to call like you wrote in the note you left me before taking off so quickly!” “I do believe that if you had stayed and talked, we could have worked it out than, I think we are old enough to have this kind of candid talk? Well at least I’d like to hope so?” Then she finally stopped talking!

Allison

“Are you done? I didn’t run away being afraid of you, or that we’d fight or something, I was in shock, and confused, and anxious, there was so much running through my head from what I did read, and I felt terrible all the same time. And well Lee I’m not like you, I just needed a little TIME, a little more time than you to come to terms with everything that is now going to change between us!”

Lee

“Change between us?” “Oh well now you’ve got me interested, what exactly do you mean by this, what kind of change will there be? Aren’t we a little too old to be taught new tricks now?

Allison

“Well first off, let me start off with saying, to break the ice a little and throw in humor absolutely not! I don’t see how 25 & 27 is old at all or how we can’t learn new things and 2ndly I have a confession to make, and it was a bigger confession than to just admit that I read your diary, and I needed a few days to deal with that. And now as you can see, I am here to deal with it full force, like I’ve never been ready to head something on before, and you know what I’m like I’m not that kind of confrontational type to just spear head something so strong. But this, this is different, this about you were talking about, goes like all the way back to when YOU were 16 kind of confession!”

Lee

“OH 16? Now you’ve got me interested, but before that I just want to point out a correction which isn’t like you to make, I don’t turn 27 until January 16thth! Which is still another 16 days away! You do Realize what day it is right now, don’t you Allison?”

To obsessed with thinking about Lee and what she was trying to decide to do or rather (not if) she was going to do it but how, she completely forgot about the calendar, lost track of the days, well frankly just didn’t give a dam what day it was, this was that much more important to her!

Allison

“Oh FUCK! My boyfriend! I was supposed to leave the city yesterday and drive to him out at the cabin in the country where he IS RIGHT NOW! I haven’t even so much as phoned him, never mind email or anything else! That just goes to show you how much more important this is to me coming to you here right now to do this, TODAY, make my confession!”

Lee

“Well O.K. then without putting it off any further, and the anticipation that I can predict right about now that you don’t have a boyfriend to worry about anymore, the surprise you have, the suspense it’s killing me, so let it out, tell me what it is you needed a few days to think about before coming back to tell me?”

Allison reached for the book bag around her neck and looked down at it and with both her hands she held it out with one and opened it with the other and pulled the books in it, out! She was sweaty, and nervous and she was certain her face was red and flush, lord she could only imagine what she looked like to Lee right now? That said she opened one of the books that Lee has written under the name of Lisa Lea and opened it to one of the pages of the pieces she had booked marked since the day she discovered Lee’s work and started reading it!

~ Embracing ~

I think of all the nights

that my body hurt for you,

As I laid naked in bed;

with my hands against the wall

Confused and afraid

over what feelings of needed

embracing, were shouting out of

me

Needing you to take place with

Wishing you had been feeling

the way I needed you to,

Living together

I thought was the plan

but you never came after me,

which left me dazed and confused

because of words spit from 'your' head

that I believed, when I heard them,

I cannot count the days I spent

craving your touches against

my skin,

the company needed...

in knowing how well we'd get along,

To feel the warmth of your breath

blowing up against my neck,

as your arms hold me

and let me know

that you’re never letting me go

Your life a part of mine,

today, tomorrow and all the years ahead

untried;

Together in this world

building our own

private paradise,

but instead, the years have past

and the aches that lived dead in my groins

'now' awaken at times to remind me of the visit

that has yet to take place with anyone

a place that we will both always know

was born for you,

So, I think of all the nights

that my body hurt for you,

As I laid naked in bed,

with my hands against the wall!

Allison stopped talking and looked at Lee who looked like a ghost! And for a moment there was nothing but silence between them. And so, Allison flipped to HER BOOK and began to read her confession back, that she too had been writing all these years she’d been a fan of Lee’s singing and writing career but didn’t have the same courage to share her work with the world like her best friend did!

Allison said,

“This is my confession, that I’ve been writing too, instead of cutting myself as much as I did when we first met and kept hidden from everyone in my family and you until I couldn’t keep it hidden from you any longer! Your career inspired me, gave me something to hope for and also be excited about that maybe I could be good at this one similar thing as you, so I took to writing, and healed from self-harming. It was my way of replying to you for everything I got to know about you and never admitted I knew! And so here is what I have to say to you!”

~ Then whose ~

If it’s not your touches that belong to me,

if it’s not your touches that can fix what I need to feel

then whose is it?

as I lie here tonight, trying to take back what’s mine?

As I see there are not many options in the sea of immorality

that lives out there,

where am I supposed to turn

to find a gentle hand?

Someone whose mind does not destroy what I want?

to enjoy in the same pleasures

recognizing all the treasures,

how will I be saved from going out of my mind

for keeping in all these years

the standards of my virtues?

(virginity she say’s)

I understand the fight has to come,

what I see is real

‘But’

does my body have to pay the price this way?

Not one night do I get an answer to what it needs,

If it’s not your hands that can fix it

then whose?

Lee, at this point now finishing the glass of wine she was tossing back to absorb Allison’s beautiful ability to read the work in such a way that captivated her from the first word and to the point where without the wine she may not have been able to find the words she wanted to say in reply!

Lee

“Allison, your work… it’s BEAUTIFUL, Fantastic you are just as good as me! Maybe your better because you didn’t need the fame and attention the way I had to have it?” “But I still don’t understand why if you knew I was writing poetry under a different name that you never came to any of the shows, you came to an open mic night now and again to watch me SING, but I didn’t have a clue that you knew about anything else I did too! So why not tell me, why stay away?”

Allison

“Well Lee that’s going to take more than a glass of Merlot to answer!”

Lee

“That’s o.k. I have another whole un-opened bottle in the fridge, would you like a glass?” Without waiting for an answer she took her empty glass and went to her wine fridge and pulled that bottle of Merlot out and found her corkscrew, and Allison in the back you could hear had turned to another page and found something else of Lee’s (while she was pouring the wine) to read! Without wasting another breath Allison read…

“~ Where I Stand! ~

I play with your feet

as mine shuffle through the sand

I feel the earth and its heat beneath

the place where I stand,

Hold on to the things that give pleasure

in a world where so much understanding remains unseen.

Find joy in the simple things

The memories last,

and

we can take them with us wherever we go.

A permanent hold on the glory to unfold,

It’s good when you’ve found what you were looking for

and the happiness that comes from it.

Like earning your right to a place in heaven,

your heart feels the warmth of the good times life provides

I take the inspiration of who I think you are to me

and run with it to the place where life and fantasy collide,

It keeps living from being so hard to do

as

you move through the things in life that you cannot change

what makes us sane.

As I take today and find pleasure in the weather,

and play with your feet in the sand

Where I stand!”

While Allison was reading out loud Lee after putting the cork back in the bottle put the bottle back in the fridge and took the 2 single glasses she had filled with Merlot in her hands and walked out to her best friend standing in her living room bearing her own soul and confession of words from her heart to her. So happy that it was only something as easy and pleasant as this to share with her to fix all these years of what they both wondered, if the other knew about it?

When Allison was done Lee handed out Allison’s glass to her and said,

Lee,

“Let’s make a toast with one another as it is just about going on midnight and I have something sweet and pleasant to share with you too after we are done these glasses or rather finished standing here!” She laughed.

Allison flipped to yet another page already book marked and folded the book closed on her finger and took her other hand and mouth wateringly good happily accepted the glass of wine, Lee knew her better than her boyfriend did ever so clearly, because 1. he never got the wine right and Allison was so polite and patient she just always kept on saying, ‘Oh that’s alright honey you’ll get it right next time!” and 2. because he didn’t know right then and there on that day to CALL LEE’S PLACE [FIRST] to find out what happened to his girlfriend? So evidently right in that moment of sharing their glasses of Merlot Allison knew Lee was right she clearly in that moment definitely didn’t have a boyfriend anymore! So, I guess at the end of this last day of the year something very good did come out of all this!

Lee smiling at Allison who could see by her friend’s expression that she was up to something couldn’t resist asking her, Allison said,“O.K. Lee confess, what does that expression on your face mean? I want to know, and I want to know now!” She said humorously! She was enjoying her Merlot indeed, and that’s when Lee walked over to the curtains in her living room and could see through the crack of them what was pleasantly un-anticipated and couldn’t be more pleasing to receive, she opened the curtains up wide and you could see that they were snowed in, there was a pleasant snow fall going on outside and it had been evident that it’s been falling heavy just about the entire time Allison has been in Lee’s presence!

Lee,

“Well, I was going to ask you this and mean to go somewhere but from the pleasant gift of a New Years’ Snow fall as heavy as the one we are seeing now outside my windows I can safely and confidently say that I think we are going to be snowed in for at least the night and who knows maybe even tomorrow or the day after that?”

Allison

“Ask me what?”

Lee

Turned back to looking at Allison and took a nice refreshing sip of her wine and walked over to Allison, and said, “Something I thought I never would get to ask you! But Allison Cooke, WILL YOU DO ME THE HONOR of GOING OUT ON A DATE WITH ME? I’ve been dying to ask you this question for a decade now as you’ve certainly come to know, only you might just have to accept that this date is going to take place right here in my home if you are indeed ok with that?”

Allison taken a back and wanting to drink some of her wine to find the answer also takes a sip and then replies…

Allison

“Oh My God YES OF COURSE LEE! Why I’d just love too, I’d be honored to go out on a date with you even if that first date is on New Years’ Eve in your home! Maybe that’s even better than an evening out at an expensive and busy and overflowing restaurant?”

Lee was extremely happy to have that moment finally pass, after 11 years of thinking about it to herself, and wondering what Allison was thinking and feeling back, to know that great minds think alike and that she never really did have anything to worry about, that they were on the same wave-length of thought! Now she was all excited about the perfect evening she wanted with Allison and all that she had to do and how short a time she had to do it in…. and seconds later while thinking this that’s when it happened!

It was already too late, and Allison could foresee this prediction and had the page in the book of the perfect poem that Lee wrote finger marked already…. But Lee’s beloved and beautiful Grand-Father clock had gone off, right at the stroke of midnight (like clockwork of course) it struck midnight and chimed 1, 2, 3… at which point Allison put down her glass and opened the book and read the perfect poem for the moment between them that was just now taking place!

Allison

“~ Happy New Year! ~

Midnight in the New year,

two sets of lips

Kissing in the night,

the sound of them smacking

ever so light,

courting each other so slow,

time to let the other know

what’s right about being together

as they lay in the warmth

of the love shared

between each other

and they enquire with the delicate touch

of their fingers,

based on where they land,

what’s in the future of their loves plans

with a gentle push of one button

Off goes the television!”

Lee

“Oh, to hell with the television I can’t believe I’m about to do this!” And she put her wine down and went and kissed her girlfriend just like in the poem, Happy New Year to New Beginnings Together! What an exciting year ahead to explore, together….

Moment’s later when they could finally bring themselves to stop and pull a part Lee said,

Lee

“Alright Allison my dear, Now I have something wonderful for you! But I need a few moments to get it all ready, so please get yourself all comfortable, go slip into something end of night comfortable from my dresser, and I will see you in there (my bedroom she specified) momentarily! With how Lee made Allison feel just now she didn’t hesitate, or question the instructions, she was happy to grab her glass of wine and wander away to completing the task of the said instructions! 

Lee knew as she balanced everything in her hands to the bedroom that she might have some stained sheets and carpet, but she was thinking that it would be worth it! Once in the bedroom she laid out the bowl of strawberries and another with freshly chilled whipped cream, because it had already been understood that this is what Lee’s plans had been; to celebrate New Years’ at Home alone doing this… watching the fireworks in the dark on tv with a beautiful fire burning away in the fire place while eating Strawberries and Whip Cream!

And here as one might be able to conclude is where the wonderful ‘eve’ came to a perfect ending between 2 perfect friends and an occasion neither would soon be forgetting! With that note, Lee turned on some soft romantic seasonal music and turned down the lights, just enough to see what she was doing and her turn in what she was going to read to Allison now, now… that it was her turn too! 

Lee thought this moment will be relieved again in the morning , so seconds later said, “Please humor me my dear and go with the flow of the time we have now here tonight to live it together just after midnight in a New Year… because whether the sun is up or down the same romance and pleasure applies, after all one can eat and enjoy Strawberries & Whipped Cream Any Time in a 24 hour day and life can we not?!  (Clearly this needed no reply)…

So she started feeding Allison and having the work memorized recited the following words to her…

Lee

~ Strawberries & Whip Cream! ~

“Strawberries and Whipped Cream

Green Melons and Ripe Cantaloupe

Breakfast in Bed,

Early morning light

Shining through the room,

Lights up your face

And your Eyes Shine

At what you wish to consume

Breakfast in Bed!

Dance with me

(LEE takes Allison with her hands and positions her to dance) then goes back to reciting the story while living it out with her!)

Our bare feet take in the soft warmth of the carpet

As I say,

“Follow my lead...”

1…2…3

1…2…3

1…2…3

1…2…3

She stumbles...

“I can’t!

Nobodies ever…

I mean… I can’t!

1…2…3

1…2…3”

Divorcing her words...

You pull her into you

Closely embrace her,

Your silence is strength

She looks at you smiling,

(You’re DANCING WITH ME?)

‘YES!’ her expression say’s back to her.

She reaches for the fruit with one hand

Puts it to her lips.

She doesn’t resist

She bites,

The fruit juice drips along the side of her lip.

“Breakfast.” she say’s

Se drinks her lips

Moments later they bed,

She consumes her

What left is there to be said?

Breakfast in bed

Early morning light shining

Through the room!

And just before they pass out together in each other’s arms Allison, sticky and wet and all consumed by sweat, strawberries and whipped cream, yawned as she turned into Lee’s arms and grabbed for her wine glass on the night stand beside the bed and remembered these final words from the works between the 2 of them and all these years that they remained unshared and recited this one last poem as she took her last sip of her glass of Merlot and put the empty glass back down, 2 empty wine glasses, The Perfect Ending to a Perfect First Date!

Allison

~ Thunder ~

“The sound of your heartbeat

as strong as thunder (with the lightening flash)

my ear doesn’t need to

lay against your chest

for me to hear the strength you bare,

in who you are, it lives in me,

for all the time I lost

never being able to explore your freckles,

to stare into that bored look in your eyes

consumed by how much I care.

How brave we’ve both been

in the times we’ve lived

every moment we’ve been kept apart,

for all the fun dancing in the street

could have been with you,

I smile upon our futures’ ‘Now’

for having you

to travel around the world with!”

And just before they both passed out Lee yawning and thinking of the words’ she just heard understood one thing and said, Lee, “Hey you changed it, at the end of it!” Allison snuggled into Lee’s arms and laid her head on her sleepy girlfriends’ chest as she began falling asleep and her final words to her best friend were,

Allison, “No Lee… WE CHANGED IT!”

“Love between 2 friends that will now stand the test of time and last Forever!” Allison kissed her on the cheek with Lee barely still awake and said, “Happy Merlot Day!” And with wonderful smiles upon both their faces they passed out to the sound of wonderful low playing music, a song that meant something that they knew, meant something to the both of them!

Happy Merlot Day!

The End!