it had been so long since she kissed someone, she wondered if she had forgotten how.
because surely this was not how it was meant to go.
wasn't one person meant to go for the top lip, the other the bottom?
she couldn't figure out what was happening.
well, okay, she knew what was happening. sort of. she just couldn't figure out what she was supposed to do.
standing right there on 78th and Amsterdam, kissing.
she almost started laughing and gave up. she thought if she just disengaged, turned around, and walked away, she might be spared the embarrassment.
but eventually they figured it out. reached a tentative meeting of minds. and mouths.
she loved that he turned around right there on the corner--as if driven by his own wonder and curiosity. loved that he had to take his glasses off. loved that he was suddenly a boy, transformed by his own excitement.
because never had she felt more beautiful.
and so when it all ended, she would laugh about just how uncomfortable that first kiss was, but choose to remember that moment when he could just no longer wait--that moment when a grown man became a boy. and she began to fall.