When I Saw You I Felt...

Tulips

I was turning into Nathan's driveway since there is a path behind his house to the tulip garden.

"I cleared the path out a little bit more, me and my brother used to just trample straight through it," Nathan said.

"Thank you," I said as I closed the door to the car.

We walked to Nathan's backyard, into the woods and followed the path.

"These are actually really pretty woods," I said as I ducked under a tree.

"Yeah, best for hide and seek," He said sarcastically.

I thought the path would be longer but before I knew it we were there to the beautiful tulip garden. It looks like It is owned by the farm acres away. There were rows of yellow, pink, white, orange, red and purple. The rows were flush up against each other so it was about an acre of just tulips. It was gorgeous.

"The owners said we could use this whenever we want, they don't use it," He said with a smile.

I walked in the tulips so I was surrounded by them, the sky was still blue, with no clouds. There was a square patch of grass with scattered tulips, around 10 feet long.

"I found a patch of grass," I said to Nathan.

I sat down on one half of the grass patch and looked off into the distance to see some of the tulips, overgrown deeply bleeding into the woods about 50 feet away.

"This place is so pretty," I said as I sat down next to me. He set down his navy blue backpack and he took out 2 packages of Starbursts.

"You said these were your favorite," he said with that smile, he was nervous I could see it in his face. He was slightly blushing; he had not gone full tomato yet but he was getting there.

"They are, thank you," I said with a reassuring smile. He had gotten my favorite, the pink package.

"I'm happy...being here with you," I said as I looked out into the distance. I know saying that was corny but it was true.

He looked over to me and smiled. I saw the moon in the sky, it still looked like cotton candy, so it was faint.

"We should go over there," he said, getting up and grabbing my hand and walking to the purple tulip forest.

As the forest got closer I noticed that there were some bluebells mixed in with the purple tulips. Deeper in the forest there were fairy lights and a picnic blanket and basket. The fairy lights lined between each of the bigger trees.

"This is so pretty," I said as I went to the picnic blanket. It was light blue with tiny light blue hearts, the picnic basket was white wood with the paint chipping off of it.

I sat down on the comfortable blanket and Nathan sat right next to me. He was wearing a white long sleeve button up dress shirt, they started making employees wear them. I was wearing a white t-shirt with a black felt square in the middle, and black hoodie partially zipped. It was the beginning of May so the weather was getting warmer.

"Thank you," he said with that smile. He was finally warming up less nervous now.

"They don't have green tulips here," he continued while remaining in eye contact, he was no longer nervously putting his hands in his pockets or looking at his watch.

I giggled, he was still the same Nathan. The one that remembers everything, The one who smiles. I was worried that something would change between us now that the romantic window was open, even if it is just a little bit.

He opened up the picnic basket. He showed me mini sandwiches, which somehow looked like they would be on Pinterest. They were carefully cut with a stick in the middle of them, and in a small snack bag.

He handed one of the bags to me, I smiled and took it.

"Thank you," I said somehow gently.

"How do you know the owners," I asked him after I ate my sandwiches.

"My dad used to work for them on the farm when he was a teenager," he said, he had a slight smile on his face like the nervousness had come back to haunt him. The wind was slightly blowing, so his brown hair was touching his eyelashes, his green eyes stared back at me.

"You know, when you feel, for sure, that you're doing the right thing?" he asked.

I was about to reply but he continued with, "That's how I feel about you."

I didn't know what to say so I laid my head on his shoulder. Nathan never said stuff like this, but somehow I knew he meant it, I quietly replied with,

"Me too,"

I laid down on the blanket and I could see the sky. It was a lighter blue with pink. The world feels quiet, it was just me and Nathan.

After around 5 minutes I got up and wrapped my hoodie around my waist. I looked over to one of the bigger trees, it had big branches like steps until it split into two. I went over to it and climbed it to the split. I saw Nathan walking toward me. He climbed up to the second branch and played with my hair.

"We should take a picture," I said as I looked for my phone in my pocket,

"I think I left my bag in the grass patch," I said.

"I'm gonna go get it," I continued.

I walked over to the grass patch, luckily we left a path. I looked up at the sky and smiled. My mom and I would always call the sky cotton candy.

I picked up my bag and took out my phone. There was a message from Lilith it read:

'I don't know what is up with you' I rolled my eyes and blocked her number. I turned around and saw Nathan. I guess I was so distracted by the sky I didn't hear him. I looked him in those eyes and my heartbeat quickened. I looked at his smile, his lips and I looked away.

"Found it," I said with an awkward giggle as I turned around. I felt his hand touch mine, he spun me around and kissed me, I could feel his lips on mine, his hands on my back. I reached up and put my hand on the back of his head and the other one on his cheek. I could feel his hair in between my fingers. He deepened the kiss, this felt different, different than any other kiss I had ever had.

We broke apart and he looked at me deeper than ever before and said, "I told you I was sure."