Eternity

                                                Eternity
                                  A collection of short stories
                        Chronicling the events that changed my life

                                        By Brian McCarthy

                                 

                                        Perfection Realized



The day was perfect; at least I thought it was.  I was in a good mood; an amazing summer afternoon.  Not a cloud in the sky, and the air was thin and not too hot.  Just perfect, that's how I remember it.  I was at work when the day that I had previously felt was perfect changed my life forever.  Perfect, how could I have been so shortsighted? How could I have thought that that day or any before it was perfect up until that moment?  The day was close to being perfect but I quickly realized what was missing when I saw her.  She was sitting there, applying for a job, and words none spoken from any tongue could capture and relate her beauty.  i felt as though that from across the room she could hear the acoustics of my chest, or at least have seen what the sight of her had done to my breathing. The air that was so thin all day long had just become as thick as tar.  In an instant I could tell you exactly what she looked like.  Her hair was the color of a moonless night sky with curls like springs that bounced when she tilted her head scanning the room.  Her skin was dark olive in color, and as smooth as a baby's.  Her eyes, brown in color and beautiful, danced around the room as if not knowing that the world around her stops where ever she was.  She had most welcoming, soft, gentle smile I have ever had the pleasure of interrupting with the only words I could muster up the courage to say.  "Do you need anything, would you like a drink?" "No thanks I am fine but thank you." She replied with a voice that sounded as if a thousand angels were singing in chorus in heaven.  And with that one single moment my life had changed forever.  My ears would not hear those angels sing again upon that day and to my dismay I had found out she was taken, belonging to another bound by a ring and a stone.  My heart now beat out of my stomach as it sank to the depths of my chest.  But she had gotten the job and I knew I would be able to gaze upon her beauty again.  I HAD to see her again!  And this is where I leave you.  My perception of perfection was shattered that day only to be replaced by a new standard.  My day was not perfect if she was not in it!

Coming up, our first drink......

                                           


                                             
                                              Our first drink



Weeks had passed since she first started and everyday that I worked I would check the floor plan to see if she was working.  I tended the bar and she was a waitress at a local restaurant.  Days seemed like weeks when she was not working, and when she was the night was over before I blinked twice, sometimes once.  It seemed not fair, almost cruel that time worked like that.  Like someone was playing a bad joke on me the nights we worked together, as if they were fast forwarding the clocks in the restaurant.  So there I was, almost at the end of another evening that seemed to have lasted less than a minute when I decided to mention to her that a bunch of us were going out for drinks after work.  I was just trying to be nice not actually expecting the most beautiful woman I had ever met to come along.  What I expected was for her to politely turn down the invitation because she had to rush home to her husband.  What actually happened was that I closed the bar in less time than it would taken if there were ten of me because she had accepted the invitation and she and the others had already headed out to the bar next door that stayed open later than ours.  I tried to play it cool on the surface when she said yes but inside I was really like a kid on Christmas morning, waking my parents up at four thirty, rushing them into the living room and tearing open the presents.  I have to admit I probably did not do the best job closing the bar that night but I did not care, all I wanted to do was sit down next to her and listen to her angelic voice.  I opened the door to the bar where we were meeting at and walked inside. There she was, simply breathtaking, even in her work clothes.  Every time I saw her it was like seeing her for the first time.  I noticed her curly black hair, dark olive skin, beautiful smile, and a body that looked like it was carved from stone by Michelangelo himself. I was elated to find that there was a seat open next to her.  I had to have ignored all my coworkers for a good hour or so, I mean I had said hi to them but all my attention was on her.  I sat down next to her and ordered my usual drink of choice, a rum and coke.  Here is the funny thing about that.  I am a bartender, a mixologist if you will, and my favorite drink was one that I knew nothing about until she educated me on it.  See Brenda, her name by the way, was of Cuban decent, she was born here in America but both her parents were from Cuba.  Brenda would go on to tell me that my favorite drink was actually conjured up in Cuba, and its real name was a Cuba Libre, meaning free Cuba.  And to my surprise what was my perfect woman's drink of choice, a Cuba Libre.  Little to my knowledge this would be one of very many occurrences of coincidences between Brenda and myself.  The night started out with a bunch of us going out for drinks and ended up being the two of us with our attention fixed on one another.  As I listened to Brenda talk about everything from rum and cokes to her hometown of Miami I felt myself memorizing her face.  Her eyes were of the most beautiful shape, so perfect, brown in color.  She has the cutest nose, with a little bump that if not there she would not be as stunning as she is.  And for her lips, they looked so soft and moist; I watched them as she spoke.  For what would it have taken to gently kiss her, feel her warm breath just as we were getting close.  Feel the tip of my nose as it touched her cheek, a cheek that looked as soft as a pool filled of cotton.  What would it take, a miracle, Brenda was married.  It would never happen.  Yes there can be no denying the fact that there was a tension between us, but it was playful, harmless.  So that is how our first drink went, I didn't want the night to end so we had a second and third, and possibly a forth drink, all the while I am infatuated with everything she had to say and every subtle movement she made.  And so the night had to end, or so it seemed, see I missed my train so that I could spend just a little more time with her and had no way of getting home.  I planned on taking a taxi but Brenda insisted.  So I accepted. 


coming soon the first kiss.......


So there i was, sitting in her car outside my house, she had just given me a ride home.  It seemed harmless enough, she was just trying to be nice, saving me way more than half of what i would have spent for a cabride.  we made a deal that she would give me a ride if i paid for gas.  But as I sat there talking to her, not wanting to get out of the car.....I realized, not profoundly, but more subtly that she too had not wanted me to get out.  I will be honest, we talked of things that I can't fully remember, probably music, most likely of where she grew up, and definitely why she moved here, but in our conversation I realized that we had both traveled beyond the scope of just plain chit chat.  We were no longer just holding a conversation; we were involving ourselves in each others lives.  Not so much being polite, but actually caring about what the other had to say.  I am not sure how long we spent in the car in front of my house but what seemed like seconds must have been hours!  I realized it was really getting late and I reluctantly told her that she should go, for I did not want her to drive home tired, although at that point that was a given.  just as I was saying goodnight she said something that stunned me, something that I had had to go over in my head before responding just to make sure that I heard it right, something that made me so elated I was still unsure I heard it correctly!  "I am very attracted to you and I can't help feeling how I feel!"  So many things rushed through my mind at that very moment.  I felt the same way, she was married but I didn't care, I couldn't help the way I felt.  Before that moment, every bone in my body, fiber of hair, and sense of my being had told me there was something here, something more than just innocent flirting, and she felt it too!  I looked at her at that moment, and she looked at me, eye to eye.  I placed my hand upon hers and she does not know this but to this day I can't even explain how scared I was.  My fingers shook, my heart pounded, and I could feel myself start to sweat. I knew that I was going to kiss her, but what would her reaction be?  Would she kiss me back, would she draw away and tell me angrily to get out, was she willing to put her marriage aside for that one moment?  but despite all my reservations I drew up the courage....my eyes never wavered, and as I looked at the most beautiful woman I had ever laid eyes on I leaned over to kiss her.  I could smell her perfume as I got closer to her.  My tongue tangled with hers, my hands, one on her cheek, the other around her, holding her body tight to mine.  I could feel her soft lips against mine; feel her chest rise as she breathed heavier and heavier.  She quietly moaned as I explored every part of her mouth while running my hands over her body.  We kissed the most perfect, beautiful first kiss ever that night in the car.  That kiss must have lasted another hour but I still did not want her to leave, I wanted to take her upstairs, lay her down on my bed, and kiss her until the sun shone through my window.  But she had to go, and leaving in itself took another twenty minutes.  Every time I tried to go one of us would grab the other and we would start kissing all over again.  Getting out of the car was the most painful thing that I had done, but finally, reluctantly i did  and as I walked in the house beaming from head to toe I wondered what this all meant, what was it going to be like the next time I saw her at work.  Then I realized, that didn't matter right now, what mattered was that I had just experienced the most perfect kiss I or anyone had ever had or could have.  When I say perfect I mean Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel perfect, Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet perfect.  Like our kiss was our own perfect work of art, and any kiss from anyone else ever from that point would pale in comparison.  So I walked inside with my mind racing, replaying every moment of our first kiss, every look, every touch, every everything, and nine months later I still do.  That was our first kiss and i love repeating it every moment that i can.  And what comes next.......our first date.