After weeks of conversation over email and phone, Jannine mentioned spring break coming up and her, being a student, had time to visit me in Colorado. This was the opportunity the two of us had been waiting for. She bought the plane ticket that night. When she emailed me the arrival time, I felt something that I hadn’t felt in years …butterflies. My heart skipped a beat and everything was perfect.

	We talked online continuously until she left for the airport. That night, three hours before her arrival, I went to my parents’ house to shower, shave and change. I remember exactly what I wore and the way I fixed my hair. Before I knew it, I was standing there on the end of the terminal wearing my black button-down shirt with my best jeans. My heart was racing when they let the passengers off the plane. I watched everyone getting off, wondering if I’d recognize her, but as soon as I saw her it was like I’d been waking up to her beautiful eyes every morning. She ran up to me, jumped into my arms and we kissed. I know not how long we were in that spot, lips locked, but I could have spent an eternity there.

	I escorted her to baggage claim and we sat on the floor there, no sense of urgency in life. We just looked at each other, grinning with some blissful ignorance. There could have been bombs dropping outside and we wouldn’t have noticed. We got her bags and went out to the car. I packed her things into the trunk and we drove into the hills. The first stop along the way was the liquor store that I had been frequenting for the past few years. We walked in and picked out a bottle of rum to enjoy that evening. After another kiss or two on the road, we were at the office. We walked in to see Greg at his desk, still working on one of the numerous projects. Jannine and Greg, being old friends, talked for a few minutes. I returned to my desk for some reason or another and found that she was right there with me. We started to kiss and caress, perhaps a bit prematurely, and Greg tossed back his car keys, stating, “Get a fuckin’ room, guys …I mean it.”

	We didn’t even wait until we walked into the motel office and got the room. She serviced me all the way to the motel and we fucked right there in Greg’s driver seat. After realizing how steamed the windows had become, we got ourselves back in order and got the room. Truthfully, after opening that door and flying through it to the bed, I think we hit the mattress before the door finished slamming shut.

	The night was incredible in every way possible. To attempt putting words to it would be not only futile, but also criminal.

	I came to the next morning, turning my head to the right to find her already awake. She had been watching me sleep and as I awoke and locked my eyes with hers, the corners of her mouth moved up to form one of the most radiant smiles I’d ever witnessed. We both stayed there, looking into each other’s eyes again.

	We dressed ourselves, had a few more swigs from the quickly depleting bottle of rum, and left for Mo’s, the diner across the street. Although she’d been in town for a full night, the conversation we had at that table was the first time we talked face-to-face about anything of consequence. It seems that if one is to jump in bed with someone else, it should be standard practice to talk to him or her, face-to-face, for at least 1 hour prior. Then again, in this day and age, nothing is protocol anymore and the place for an old-fashioned guy has been phased out by our need for instant gratification. My judgment was impaired by the bliss and, therefore, this theme of sex, drinking, and madness before conversation never seemed to become evident to me.

We spent that day wandering around Manitou Springs; I gave her the native’s grade-A tour of the town. We returned to the office so I could check up on my email contacts and introduce her to everyone. I introduced her to everyone and all were cordial, as was she. We left again, to tour more of my home city.

We visited several locations throughout the town including Garden of the Gods, which was most colorful and brilliant this time of year. We walked through some of the local castles/estates in the area once owned by the pioneers of another age. Then, we paid a quick trip to some of my favorite spots in town to take a “first date.” I feel that she not only approved of each, but it gave her and myself a place to get to know each other better. The places we went made her know more about the place I am from and they made me know more about her ways, seeing as how these sites were nothing new to me and I could observe her ways more closely. We spent the next 2 weeks in that motel, myself going to work for a couple hours each day and her, filling my nights with something I never knew.

The thing with her that I felt was something unique, it seemed. Perhaps more than that, it was something I never knew before. I remember on one night, I walked from the motel to the grocery store a couple miles away. The whole time I walked there and back, I had this sense of urgency and importance. I knew that the thing I was set out to do on my own volition was to get my girl something to eat. So, I took that mission with pride and I accomplished it with speed. Before a real commitment was ever made, I knew she was the person I was going to care for. It made me the happiest man alive.

I returned and, even today, I remember what we ate: Turkey, cheese, and mustard sandwiches. The thing that night that was most striking was the conversations we had. We first made love, then we sat there, quizzing each other and drinking. I remember thinking to myself how intelligent this girl was. At that time, her intelligence knocked my socks off. There were many nights like this and, quite frankly, I don’t remember a night that wasn’t this way.

After those two weeks, she had to return to school. I knew the day was coming and it ticked against my heart. I didn’t know if I would ever see her again, and, if, perhaps, distance and time would make it too hard to stay together. Each day that her departure came closer, my heart seemed to ache more and more. I knew that I would have to say goodbye, and I never wanted to.

As much as I hated it, the day came. I remember the drive to the airport. I wore sunglasses because I didn’t want her to see my eyes clouding up. I put the car into the short-term parking lot, pulled her bags out, and escorted her to the terminal. We checked her in, gave the bags (one half-full of rocks she found from our walks in Garden of the Gods.) I walked her to the check-in and pulled off the glasses. My eyes were full of tears because I saw this woman who had taken my heart away stepping onto a plane and leaving…maybe for good.

I pulled her out of line, my eyes speaking more than words could, and brought her aside. I remember telling her, as I held her close to me, that this wasn’t the end and we weren’t saying goodbye. She started to cry and said to me that she would be coming back to me soon. I understood that she had a life elsewhere…She understood, and felt, the love I had for her. So, with letting her know my feelings, I gave her a kiss and she boarded that plane.

I put my glasses back on and left for the car, still choking on my own emotion…something told me that what I told her, in all its sincerity and truth, was not falling on deaf ears…