I wanted to continue to encourage him to open up, but I pushed him too far earlier in the day, and I did not want to risk it again. For now, I wanted to open myself up to the color and richness of the scenery to which he brought me, both at this moment and this entire weekend. The links forming in his mind from thoughts to words would display themselves in time, I hoped, but for now I turned and faced the splendid image and its massive splash of color on all sides of me.
I folded my legs and sat near his feet. I opened my arms as if preparing to receive the sunset in an embrace. I placed my left hand on my left knee, and my right hand on the toes of his boot, which struck me as being particularly clean given our weekend outing. I hoped the tranquility I absorbed would be embraced by him, too.
When he finally spoke, the sun already sunk halfway below the horizon as a jeweled red glow. He leaned back on his palms again, seemingly more relaxed.
“Do you know what would make this moment perfect?” he quizzed me. I paused to think, because I would have guessed this moment was already pretty close to perfect.
“A cold beer?” I asked without changing my position.
He smiled. “Well, yes, but that’s not what I was going to say.”
I never knew if he even drank, so I would keep that in mind as a topic for another time.
“If at the moment when the colors in front of us reach their peak, the earth would stop rotating for thirty minutes just so we can enjoy them a little longer?”
“Again, no, but that would be amazing.”
“Wouldn’t it though?” I turned my head briefly to acknowledge him. “But I suppose it may pose other gravitational challenges, what with the earth no longer turning.”
“Yes.” I went back to my open stance waiting for the sun to vanish completely.
I ought to throw out one more guess – three guesses. Maybe this was my chance to see how he really felt about me, and maybe even persuade him to kiss me. That would definitely make this moment perfect. This would be the ideal setting to experience those soft, luscious, tender lips first hand, after all, this glorious mountain sunset on a weekend alone in the mountains capped a remarkable day in the forest. This spot was the kind of place where romantic stories end happily ever after.
“Okay, third guess: you’d like to take advantage of the fading glow of dusk to lie me down against this boulder and completely ravage my body?” I almost said, ‘make wild, passionate love to me,’ but I really preferred to avoid the L word.
He said nothing, and I couldn’t tell if this was a moment of awkward, unrequited flirtation, or if he was actually considering the option to form an opinion. Perhaps this was the real moment when the wheels came off the romantic storyline.
Or maybe his silence was one of those unspoken affirmatives. As each moment passed, I tried not to regret what I suggested as I waited for any kind of response. I imagined him taking action without another word.
After just slightly longer than an awkward amount of time, he offered me his answer. “Actually, I was thinking there was nothing that would make this moment more perfect.”
That’s what I thought when he first asked! Oh, but God he was good, and I might have just completely ruined this.
NEXT: Ghost Stories – Part 37
Pam Portland 