My Savage Love for You

The Possibility of Us

Jason

I walked back inside and shut the door. I closed my eyes and let out a deep sigh of frustration. "WE WERE SO CLOSE!" I thought to myself. I was infuriated that the one thing that prevented me from kissing Penn was something as trivial as my ringer going off. I reflected in regret, "If only I had left my phone inside or turned on my silent mode!"

I checked my notifications to see who interrupted our almost-kiss. "It's just spam," I realized. "Or is it? Maybe it's the universe's way of telling me not to kiss Penn..." I spiraled.

I went to turn off the slow song and clean up the kitchen. While I was washing the dishes, I began to think about the rest of that evening: the way that Penn looked into my eyes when Michael Jackson was playing, how Penn massaged my biceps, and of course the fact that we had almost kissed. His eyes were mesmerizing and had a grip on my soul whenever we would lock eyes. His stare was like poetry– so powerful, yet so vulnerable.

I could feel myself falling harder for Penn as I craved the kiss that seemed out of my reach, no matter how close it was. My heart fluttered as I thought about how it would have felt to have his lips on mine. I couldn't take the feeling of defeat any longer and decided to call Kim to vent.

"How did it go, Jason?" Kim asked.

"Umm..." I said, unsure of how to explain it.

"Well, go on," Kim urged.

I replied with a frown, "Everything went pretty well until he went in for a goodbye kiss and my ringer went off."

Kim gasped dramatically, "YOU'RE KIDDING!"

"You have no idea how much I wish I were."

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU GUYS ALMOST KISSED! I mean, I know it sucks that you guys didn't get to actually kiss, but the fact that he wanted to kiss you says a lot, doesn't it?"

"Hmm... I didn't think about it that way, Kim," I said while deep in thought. "OH MY GOSH, HE WANTED TO KISS ME!!!!!!!!" I shouted into my phone.

"First of all, Jason, volume. We've talked about this. Second, so what's next? Are you thinking about reaching out to him to set up another date? Maybe get that kiss you missed tonight?" Kim teased.

"First of all, Kim," I mimicked, "it's not a date. I haven't even kissed the man yet."

"Whatever, Jason. Now, I'll let you go think about how you're gonna get that kiss. Bye." Kim said and abruptly hung up.

About a couple of hours later, I had finally finished cleaning up my house, but I wasn't done thinking about Penn. As I was washing my 6-pack in the shower, I thought about how Kim was right when she said that even though we didn't kiss, that doesn't change the fact that we were about to. Penn wanted me, and I wanted him. That was that. I couldn't stop smiling at the idea of Penn and I being together. I started to think way into the future about what it would be like to date the finest man to have ever walked into my house. I was in love.

I dried off the water droplets on my bumpy torso and brushed my teeth. I picked up my phone and read through my previous text conversations with Penn and gushed when I realized how innocent I was when I responded to all of these messages. "Who knew I was going to be that close to kissing Penn!" I thought to myself.

Unexpectedly, I received a text message from an unknown number.

"Do everyone a favor and stay away from Penn. He'll never be into someone like you anyway," it read.

I was so startled I began to choke on the toothpaste in my mouth. I continued to cough aggressively and wondered in a panic, "Who would send this? What should I do?"