Chapter V – First Kiss 2.0
While Gus changed from his work clothes and got ready for bed, Kristina worked quickly to get what she needed for her plan. It wasn’t that elaborate. All she needed was a paper bag and a black marker.
When he finished getting ready, he walked out to the living room to join her. He was looking at his phone’s screen and sat down on the couch next to her. “Sleepy punch?” He questioned teasingly.
“That’s all she needs to know right now.”
He looked at her. “At some point, she’s going to figure out the truth.”
Kristina thought about it and nodded. “I know. I’ll tell her the truth some day. When she’s about 50. Or maybe she can read about it in my journal when I’m dead.”
“You don’t keep a journal,” he said.
“Guess she’ll never hear it from me then,” Kristina replied.
“I get that you don’t want her to know you were drunk but it might be good. Keep her from an unhealthy idealization of perfect. So, you drank that night. You learned you don’t like to drink and you didn’t do it again. It was a good life lesson learned. That would be good for her to know.” He recited the speech he thought of while he was changing clothes earlier.
She nodded her head. “I get that but I don’t want her to develop an unhealthy idealization of love and life. It worked for us but I was lucky you were there. If you hadn’t been there this story could have ended much different. There are consequences to drinking that much and passing out. I certainly don’t want my 10-year-old princess to romanticize getting drunk thinking that’s how to meet her prince.”
He thought about it. “Fair point. We won’t tell her. Yet. But at some point, I think you better tell her the whole story because she is going to figure it out. You were stressed about finals and your relationship with that dud and decided to try drinking.” He stretched his arm over her shoulder and let her snuggle in close. He decided it was time to change the subject. “Decide what we are going to watch tonight?”
“I don’t feel like watching anything,” she said.
He looked at her. “Are we not done talking about our first kiss?”
She looked at him. “No,” she exhaled. “I just wish the story was different.”
“I don’t,” he said and leaned in for a kiss. “That was a great kiss.”
She kissed him quickly.
They sat for a moment. “Mind if I find a game on?” he asked reaching for the remote.
“I do think,” she said slowly ignoring his question. “That it isn’t fair that you remember this great kiss and I don’t.”
He looked at her and studied her face for a moment to determine where she was going with this. “I don’t know what to do about that,” he said slowly.
“I do,” she answered and tossed the paper bag at him. “I’m asking for a first kiss redo.”
He looked at the paper bag where two big holes had been cut out. “A what now?”
“We’re going to recreate our official first kiss. This will be our first kiss 2.0, if you will. This one I will remember.”
“Are you sure?” he asked slowly. “Because this sounds like the plan of a crazy or maybe even drunk person. I mean, extremely tired person.”
“Ha, ha,” she said. “That bag is your mask. Put it on.”
“What are all these lines on it?” he asked looking at the bag.
“Spider webs, you’re Spider-Man.”
“Of course I am,” he looked at her and saw the serious look on her face. “Fine,” he put the bag on his head. It didn’t quite fit but he could see out one of the eye holes.
“Okay,” she said. “So, you carried me into the house. We went into your bedroom.”
“I carried you into my bedroom,” he corrected.
“Right,” she said trying to visualize it. “You carried me to your bedroom and then we fell on your bed.” She cocked an eyebrow at him.
“That’s right,” he said nodding his head slowly.
“Convenient,” she said.
“Hey, you may be tiny but after carrying you from the party to my car then my car to your apartment and waiting for someone to open the door. Which, I remind you, no one did. Then back to my car and finally to my room, you started to get a little…”
“Careful.”
“Not as light,” he chose his words carefully. “So, I stumbled in my room. But I didn’t want to fall on you and crush you so I twisted.” He acted out the motions and demonstrated with his hands. “Kind of hurt my back in the process.” He reached behind him and rubbed his back while thinking of what happened.
“Poor baby,” she said. “So we ended up something like this?” She pushed him down on the couch until they were in the same position as their first kiss.
“Yeah,” he said. “Something like that.”
“Then what?” she asked.
“Up until then, I had the mask on top of my head so that I could see. But when we fell it slid back onto my face.”
She adjusted the paper bag on his face so that it covered everything except his lips. “Like this?”
“Somewhat,” he said. Now he couldn’t see anything.
“Then what?”
“As I started to pull the mask back up, you kissed me.”
“Oh, I see. I kissed you.”
“You kissed me. Yes.”
She leaned close and kissed him. He kissed her back and it was a long kiss.
Finally, she pulled away.
“For accuracy’s sake, this is when you called me your ex-boyfriend,” he said. “Please don’t do that again.”
“Shut up,” she said and smiled. She kissed him again. Another long kiss. When she pulled away, she said, “How’s that?”
“Pretty good,” he said. But he wasn’t stupid. “Still not quite like that first kiss though.”
They kissed again.
When she pulled away, she said softly but firmly, “I love you,” she paused for emphasis, “Gus.”
He removed the paper bag from his head and looked at her. “I love you.” He thought about it. “This may be our best first kiss.”
She smiled. “So, first kiss 2.0 is a success?”
“I think,” he said, “this should be the one we celebrate as our first kiss from now on. Our first kiss 2.0.” In their marriage, they had little anniversary dates that they liked to celebrate. The date of their first date. The date of their first ‘I love you’ declaration. The date they met. Anything they could celebrate they celebrated. But since they never agreed on the date of their first kiss, she would remind him in March while he reminded her in May.
“How about we celebrate in March but we celebrate with this reenactment?” she asked.
He nodded his head. “Deal. Maybe we should run through it a couple more times just to make sure we get it right. For the next time Ginny asks us to tell the story. Just to be accurate.”
She smiled.
And they practiced a few more times. Just to get their story straight.
ck's days 