Dancing in the rain

Chapter 2: Three years Later

One Thursday afternoon during school break, Jess and I got into a heated argument over the fact that she had not returned my calls in three days, which was extremely unusual of her and when she finely did call me back she cancelled our three-year anniversary which we had planned for, a month in advance.

This weekend I was to drive up to her parent's beach house and spend the weekend with her. I was beside myself, I finely lost it. We had not seen each other in two months as she was writing midterm exams and work was keeping her busy. I could not believe it. I had looked forward to our getaway, we needed it, for us, and I missed her so much.

She kept apologizing over the phone but that just made me angrier, she had no valid excuse, she just kept saying 'babe I love you, I am really sorry'. I just dropped the call, threw my phone on my bed and stormed out of the house slamming the front door behind me. I walked, in a fast-moving motion towards town and found myself in a little street I had not been before, there were a cluster of little shops, a pebble street and all the buildings were built from sandstone and it reminded me of my trip to Paris with my parents, when they were still alive.

I came across a building at the end of the street with a red door, it had an open purple luminous sign above the door, tempting me to go inside and I decided to do just that. To my surprise it was a cute little Victorian designed pub, it had a vintage feel to it, and I thought what the hell as I head straight towards the bar and sit down. The bartender approached me to ask, 'what can I get you'? I replied with Beer and double tequila shot please.

After swallowing the shot, I needed a sip of beer to wash down that cheap taste of shitty tequila out of my mouth. To the left of me was a small stage, and someone had started singing a karaoke song.

On stage stood an emerald green eyed, black haired woman, with an amazing dark brown complexion, she was wearing tight black skinny jeans, knee high brown combat boots which were slightly tied, and a thin strap white t shirt that showed off the definition of her toned muscles in her arms, and it fitted tightly around her slender waist, her tummy was showing and I could see the confidence she has within herself. She certainly had sex appeal and she knew she was gorgeous. Her body moved to the rhythm of the music track playing in the background while she sang the lyrics to the song stronger by Kelly Clarkson, all I could do was stare.

When the song was finished she came towards me, well towards the bar, and I felt this incredible warmth rushing towards me, it was feeling awkward and turned around to call for the bar tender to poor me another round. She was so calm and collective as she stood next to me and smiled and told the bar tender she will have the same.

'Hey', she said, 'you ready for some karaoke singing tonight'? I just giggled and said 'no thank you, il leave the signing for you', she kept on smiling at me, and 'cheers to our tequila shot', she drank it and said, I am Kim and our conversation started to flow, before I knew it, time had passed by so quickly it was already 11 pm and told her I had to get home.

She looked disappointed when I asked the barmen to phone a taxi for me, she blurted out loud, 'no wait, I will give you a ride'. Smiling at her I accept her generous offer to be driven home. Outside of my house she turned and looked at me, she kept smiling and with a serious face asked if she can have my phone number and I agreed.

She leaned slowly towards me, lifting her hand in my direction and moved a strand of hair that was out of place covering my eye and placed it behind my ear. Silence fell upon us and she said, 'it was amazing meeting you, I enjoyed your company a lot tonight, hope we can do it again sometime'. I smile while climbing out of the car and waved her goodbye.

What had just happened? I thought. I have a girlfriend, but maybe she was just being friendly, and I probably never see her again, no harm no foul. I just couldn't get her out of my mind. Her soft touch and her warmth have me fluttered.

I had 20 missed calls, and 40 message notifications on my phone when I woke up the next morning they were all from Jess, except one. Kim had messaged and ask me if I wanted to accompany her this evening to an event she has to attend. I eagerly accepted. She told me to dress nice. I don't know why, but I could wait to see her.

Jess kept phoning me, and eventually I answered. I was so over this conversation, nothing productive came from it. I told her I had plans and needed to end the call. Said goodbye and hang up.

Kim picked me up at 6pm, she took me to an art exhibition, something Jess had never done before, it was amazing, I knew this was the career path I wanted to follow in.

Standing in front of a painting that looked similar to a starry night by Vincent van Gogh, I felt a warm presence behind me, soft breathing on the back of my neck and a warm touch as Kim ran her hand down my naked back, she stopped where the seam of my dress ended and whispered, 'isn't it amazing'?

My knees become wobbly and all I could do was lean back into her. I felt her lips on my neck as she brushed her hands down my arms. I turned around facing her and gazed into her eyes, my heart kept beating faster, I could hear it and then she moved in closer to kiss me, but I pulled back, saying 'I just can't do this, I am so sorry' and headed towards the front door.

She ran after me, calling out my name, 'Jolene, Jolene, wait Jolene'. Grabbing my arm gently, she pulled me around just as I reached the sidewalk and about to cross the road. 'Jolene, please wait', she pulled me in closer and at that moment I couldn't help myself, I moved in towards her and my lips touched hers, she kissed me back.

Her lips wanted mine as much as mine wanted hers. My body wanted hers, like she wanted mine, and just in that moment my phone vibrated, and we pulled our kiss apart and giggled.

We didn't separate our eyes from each other while I answered the phone. It was Jess. In shock I walked away from Kim to have a private conversation with Jess. At this point I felt so guilty for what I had just done that I forgave her for cancelling our planned weekend away.

Jess asked where I was, and I told her, I just could not tell her what I had done. She told me to wait there, she is only 5 minutes away. My heart sank right down through my stomach, landed on the floor and was crushed by my own foot. Omg, is all I could think.

Kim's hand intertwined with mine and I quickly pulled away from her. With a puzzled look on her face she asked, 'everything okay'? 'No', I replied, 'my girlfriend is picking me up here at any minute', I am trying to find the words to explain to Kim but never got the chance because Jess arrived, she ran towards me, encircling herself on me, while saying 'I missed you babe', and then kissing me.

Jess let go of our hug and turned around to face Kim and introduced herself to her. She said nothing back, she still had that dumb founded look on her face, when I said, thank you for tonight, but Jess and I need to be leaving now. I climbed into jess car, turned my head back to acknowledge Kim as we drove off.

Leaving Kim standing there on the sidewalk was the second hardest decision I ever made. As I watched her watching me leave, I could see the disappointment and regret on her face.

Jess was so excited to see me, it was as if nothing happened. She took my hand, kissed it and placed it on her leg as we drove to my house. Babe she said, 'I have a surprise for you'. Jess never picked up that something was wrong, she just blabbed away, like she normally does.

We got to my place and Jess blind folded me, she said 'no peaking my love, told you I have a surprise for you'. She led me into the house and removed the blind fold, wow, to my surprise she had the whole living room filled with candles, rose petals all over the floor and bottle of wine and champagne chilling on ice in the center of the room, it was beautiful, she had tried to recreate our first date three years ago. I was blown away by the effort she had put into this.