She Seemed Perfect

She Seemed Perfect

On the phone with my mom, though we lived six hundred miles apart, I confided in her that I had met a girl who was perfect.  As I will make plain, her name is less important than a description of this young lady I was falling for.  For starters, her facial features bore an uncanny resemblance to that of a combination of my mom and my older brother.  It was this resemblance to members of my immediate family that I was unknowingly drawn to when we first met.
 
She was also pretty with a flirtatious personality.  A full head of bouncy, wavy, brown hair framed the face of this angel.  Her fair complexion, red lips, big brown eyes, and dazzling smile that wouldn’t quit all tugged at my heartstrings.
 
My God, I thought to myself.  If only a creature this beautiful were interested in me.  This would be a first. 

To my surprise, we had both been working at the same retail store for quite some time without bumping into one another.  It wasn’t fate that intervened, but a couple of well meaning office ladies seeing a need to play matchmakers.

I was in the office fumbling around for something to do while she sat in the adjoining space counting her till.  I couldn’t keep my eyes averted, though neither did I know how to break the ice.
 
Clumsily, I blurted out, “Would you like to go out sometime?”
 
“Yes,” she said plainly, in the sweetest tone of voice. 

Our first date was a movie and then a pizza.  The movie was my idea.  The pizza was hers.  We were pretty quiet, yet seemed to enjoy each other’s company.  We drove to my house where I lived with a friend.  When we were inside the door, I awkwardly tried to kiss her.

“Oh…no,” she said hesitantly.  “I want to get to know you.”

Goodness, was all I could think.  She really seems to like me.

I think she sensed my embarrassment as she said with a smile, “I’ll give you a hug.”

With her arms open wide, she moved toward me as I searched for an answer.  “I…won’t… turn that down,” the words tumbled out as she let out a flirtatious giggle.  As we embraced, I knew we had something here.

We were together every spare moment getting to know each other the more we talked.  We were so honest with each other, at times I didn’t know whether to be embarrassed or happy.  Though she still resisted my advances at kissing her saying she just wanted to be friends, I always got my hug.  Sometimes pulling her towards me as she responded affectionately saying, “Okay, okay.  You asked for it.”

I think one of my fondest memories was when we spent time at the beach.  I was at a loss for words seeing her in a bathing suit without a trace of embarrassment.  We would spray each other with tanning oil and lay in the sun.  Oh, what I really wanted to do with her. 
     
Though we were friends, this was the closest relationship I had had with a girl so far, and I enjoyed every minute of it.  That is, until we both got our feelings hurt – something I lost sleep over.  She broke a date with me to go out with a guy she said she had been wanting to go out with for a long time.  This wouldn’t have stung so much if she had meant to tell me.  By coincidence we bumped into each other as I told her I was looking forward to going out with her that night.  When she broke the news, I told her that I was hurt.  We had always been honest with each other, after all.  She just smiled and said, “Noo!”  This was a cold way of being consoled.  As I walked with her to the office, I had to say how she had made me feel. 
     
“Connie, this is bugging me,” was all that I was able to say before I saw that she was crying.  For the first time since we'd been friends, my heart was torn.

“This isn’t the time to talk about it,” she sobbed.  “I just get upset.” 
   
She was hurting and wanted to talk.  This filled a broken heart with hope.

The next day, I called her with the pretense of needing the phone number of a friend of ours.  When we were both silent, I earnestly apologized.  “Connie, I didn’t mean to upset you,” I said.  “Maybe I shouldn’t have said what I did.”

“No,” she said.  “You were right.  You said what you should have.”

I was so elated that we had made up.  I said the first thing that came to mind, “You should see me!  I have a tan!”  This was something I had been working on all summer.

“I noticed,” she said affectionately.  As we hung up, I was happy again.  However, I was soon to realize that this was the end of our relationship.  Each time I asked her out after this, she always had an excuse to get out of it.  When it finally sunk in, I wasn’t as heartbroken as I thought I’d be.  We’d become close and had a lot of fun.  The most intimate part was that she, in her own fun-loving way, had brought me out of my shell.  Though, I didn’t get the chance to tell her this, I was eternally grateful.

                                                                              --  Pat Ryan  --