Enough to Miss Christmas

We dined in a pleasant Washington restaurant where a one hundred-dollar limit might be tested depending on the price of the wine but tonight I didn't care. Our reaction to one another started a tad reserved but softened to comfortable companionship as the meal progressed. Knowledge of where the evening would lead lay hidden beneath our friendly conversation. We shared a bottle of wine, dessert and coffee while we waited each other out. Perhaps spurred by the wine or given Paul's expressed fear of saying the wrong thing, usually reticent but now randy Sarah took the initiative.

"Are we going to be lovers?" I asked boldly.

He smiled and let out his breath. "God, I hope so!"

I took his hand. "To where will you sweep me away?" I asked trying to sound worldlier than I felt.

"You're not going to make me take you to a sleazy motel that only charges fifty bucks a night are you?"

I laughed out loud, turning the heads of other dinners. "No, just a nice quiet upscale hotel." I added, "but no suite. We don't need the extra space."

We decided to walk the half dozen blocks to a hotel Paul had already booked. I kidded him about the pre arrangement but he retorted that the reservation was a "just in case" contingency.

"Are you nervous?" I asked as we strolled hand in hand in the unseasonably warm evening.

"Petrified," he answered. "You too?" I nodded as he continued. "I figured you for the confident type; first choice at the school dances, queen of the prom."

"I wasn't around when they passed out self-confidence, especially the boy-meets-girl business."

"Where were you when they formed the line?" he asked. "Home studying?"

"Nope. Vomiting and gagging in the girl's room of a hundred-year-old run down school. Where were you? In a prep school with a name I couldn't spell unless I read it in some President's biography?"

"Yeah, that's where I was barfing in the boy's room. You'll probably not believe me but this next step in the dating business isn't something I do with frequency."

"Far more than I do, I'm sure."

He stopped in mid-stride and put his arms around me. "A pact," he said as he looked me in the eye. "No history. Let us be us. You were married and I was married and maybe there have been other lovers, but many or few, it doesn't matter." He kissed me long and hard as we stood on the sidewalk. I nodded my agreement.

We were in the elevator and I was taking deep breaths to quell the butterflies when all we anticipated evaporated in the ring of Paul's cell phone.