Suddenly

Suddenly Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty Three

The Late Bloomer

"Havana we're here". She opened her eyes almost like in a scene in a movie, "oh no, I'm so sorry, I must have dozed off, it's been a really rough week at school for me", she said.

"School", I asked, "yes school, I'm a primary school teacher", she replied.

"Wow, you're a teacher? I would have never guessed, I'm also a teacher you know"

"So Mister, you're a teacher as well? I guess we have more in common than meets the eye" she said and smiled at me.

"Sir, aren't you going to walk a lady to her door?"

"Yes, mam" I replied as I stepped out of the car.

The feathery drizzles adorned us as we walked down the concrete pathway to her door. Thoughts of meeting her parents raced through my head like pure bred stallions at the races. I wasn't ready to meet the parents at any account.

We stood at her door as she shuffled through her purse looking for her keys. She unlocked the door and opened it briskly, and that's when it suddenly happened, the suddenly that sparked something into life, the something that needed a renewed beginning. She turned towards me and lent over, her lips softly pressed against my cheek as she kissed me, it was just a simple peck but it did something to me. It felt like I was on the operating table and the surgeon stood over my still body, "CLEAR!", he shouts as he jolts me with the defibrillator and brings me back to life.

I stood resolute and planted to the ground, that peck was my defibrillator. "Thank you and goodnight Mister" she said calmly whilst my heart pounded like a sledgehammer breaking through the walls of the vault of my chest. I back peddled as I walked away. Closing the door I watched her wave me goodbye. A warm familiar feeling came over me, a feeling that I once knew, I used to feel this way about BE.

A few years ago I underwent a procedure on my spine, a microdiscectomy on my L5 S1 vertebrae. Whilst at the hospital, post surgery, the nurse had me on a morphine drip and I was able to button access the morphine every three minutes to relieve the pain. The morphine would course through my veins and leave me body feeling a warm sensation, it didn't help much with the pain but the memory of the heat flowing through me reminded me of the feeling I'd get when BE was next to me and it's that same feeling that had come to visit me once again. Havana was my morphine.

It was a childish peck but to me it was gigantic, I was a late bloomer, I was well into my late twenties and I had not had my first kiss yet, this had been the closest I've gotten. Of course there was that special time seizing moment with BE at our prom, where we held each other closely and danced but I was too scared to go in for a kiss. Maybe if I had the guts to do so she would have been mine now, it's something I may have to regret for the rest of my life.

Here and now I was bamboozled by a kiss on the cheek. Falling asleep that night was a task that I was failing at, the feeling of her lips on my cheek hovered in my mind like a storm cloud about to burst.

That week ahead I tried my best to brush things aside but just as I did so, my phone buzzed with a text message that complicated things further. It was Havana thanking me for the ride home and wanting to know if I was free that Friday night to watch a movie with her and possibly have dinner.

It was a date I thought and moreover she was the one making the move. I checked the bands schedule and strangely enough we were not booked to play at any gigs on that Friday night. Was it fate?

"Yes, I'd love to", I replied to her text.....

"See you at 7pm, the movie starts at eight, so don't be late"

What was I getting myself in to? It was uncharted territory, I had never been on a date before but perhaps it was the right time for me to venture out into the real world.

Soon enough Friday night came to pass and I was frantically trying to find the right clothes to wear. I was mostly a short pants and flops type of guy unless I was on stage, but this was a different kind of stage and I needed to dress the part. I wasn't a fashion expert but I wasn't a slouch either when it came to cleaning up.

I rolled up at her place right on time. I walked up to her front door and her mum was there to greet me along with her little brother Jamie. Jamie had already paved a good word of me to his mum so the pressure wasn't as intense as I had anticipated. Her mum was as warm as a mug of hot chocolate on a winters evening, she hugged me and made me feel right at home.

I seemed cool until Havana made her way down the steps from her room to where her mum, Jamie and I were. I gasped for a few breathes of air, she literally took my breath away. I couldn't believe my eyes, she was absolutely beautiful.

We walked to the car and I was trying to be impressionable so I opened the car door for her, as I watched her get comfortable in her seat I slammed the door shut. The pain didn't hit me right away. It took a few seconds for the receptors in my brain to analyze the piercing pain of my fingers. Just before slamming the door shut I took a second to glimpse at her as I closed the door. That second gaze would cost me dearly; I had slammed my fingers in the car door.

I hit the floor like a heavy bag of potatoes and I woke up a few hours later in the emergency room of the local hospital. My eyes gingerly opened and there she was, asleep, crouched on my bed holding my good hand.

"Can I have my hand back?" I asked. "Hey, you're up, how are you feeling?' she asked.

"Where am I? What happened?"I probed her. "Well Mister, you got your hand stuck on the door as you closed it, and then you passed out, kinda funny actually, you've been out for the past few hours", she giggled softly.

"How did I get to the hospital?"

"I drove you here after you passed out", Havana answered.

"Not much of a first date huh?" I said as I laughed.

"I didn't know it was a date", she smiled.

"Mister, the doctor says you need to stay the night and you'll be good to go by the morning but I've got to get going now, I'm glad you're doing okay....Oh yeah, thanks for the most memorable first date a girl could ask for", she said as she leaned over and kissed me.

My brain shouted silently "WOW! DID SHE JUST KISS ME?" Oh, this wasn't just a peck. This was a full lip on lip action, the feeling of her soft pink lips made my body tingle all over. I wasn't entirely sure if it was the drugs or the effects of that kiss but I was buzzing.

I knew I was a late bloomer but I had finally had my first kiss, it came under the strangest circumstances but I'll take it nevertheless.