United

by A. Aubry

  Damn, straight to the point. “Your personality is refreshing, if I’m being honest. All my friends do when we go out is want girls to throw themselves at us. I just got out of a relationship not that long ago, I was never one for looking for what they are.”

  I had never been that honest with a girl within an hour of meeting her. This girl had to be working some weird ass voodoo to make me confess what I was really thinking at that moment.

  “I just got out of a relationship too,” she quietly confessed.

  We finally approached the bench that I had been leading us to. I sat down, momentarily regretting it when the hard seat almost froze me to the core.

  “Oh, really? How long ago?”

  Julianna sat down beside me, shaking her head a little, “Three days. Damn, that sounds terrible.”

  The wind began to pick up and I could already see Julianna shivering a bit. I shifted how I was sitting so that I was turned towards her and I had the wind at my back to block it.

  “Three days and you’re already catching the attention of other men. I’d say you’re doing pretty well after your breakup.”

  She crossed her legs as she sighed, her breath making a large cloud in the cold air around her, “I ended it. I was heartbroken for the first two days, then I realized that I could really do better than that asshole.”

  Wow, she was being just as honest as I was earlier. Not to mention blunt as well. It was nice to have a girl say it as it is, it was a nice change of pace from people walking on eggshells to impress me.

  “What did he do?” I stopped before I continued, not wanting to pry, “If you don’t mind me asking…”

  “He was cheating on me with three other girls.”

  “What?” I asked aloud, catching us both by surprise and effectively cutting her off. I nodded and pursed my lips, encouraging her to continue.

  How could anybody want to cheat on this beautiful girl who sat next to me? This guy really must have been an asshole.

  “He said I was working long hours and he got lonely when I was only working the same hours I always did. I should’ve broken up with him a long time ago, the last two years he felt the need to point out everything that was wrong with me. His favorite time to do it was when we uh…got intimate.”

  What the fuck was wrong with her? I didn’t see anything wrong. What I saw was a beautiful and attractive young woman who was smart and could be sassy. Why would he point out that anything was wrong with her? Especially when they were having sex.

  I could never imagine criticizing a girl about how she looked or what she did while we were having sex. That was just an unspoken rule that you didn’t do that. The fact that Julianna was being completely honest with me from the get-go did things to me and it took everything in me not to kiss her right there.

  “Why would he tell you there were things wrong with you? I don’t see anything wrong with you,” I smiled at her.

  Even from the pink that was coloring her cheeks from the cold, I could see the blush that I brought on for her, “To him, I was too heavy…not skinny enough. I’ve always been this way, even when I was just a kid. I can’t help it…”

  That fucking broke my heart. She was perfect, her body was not too heavy. He also should not have told her anything was wrong with her when he had known that she had always been heavier. If I knew anything, girls of all body types had some kind of self-esteem problem, but I could tell that Julianna’s were more intense than other girls that I had met.

  A part of me promised that I would never tell her that something was wrong with her, that I would make her feel as beautiful as she truly was. I was already making silent promises to this girl? Did someone slip something into my drink, because I never did that this early on.

  I took Julianna into my arms and hugged her tight, not even realizing what I was doing until it had been done, “He was a douchebag.”

  Her arms wrapped around me and her head rested on my shoulder for a moment before she spoke again, “Yeah, I know that now. What about you? What went wrong with your girlfriend?”

  Natalie was not an egg that I wanted to crack right now when it came to my friends asking, but I felt like I could talk to Julianna about anything. She was so open and forthcoming to me, I wanted to be the same for her.

  I sat back up and sighed at the memory of how badly things had ended for me, “We broke up almost a week ago, she was cheating on me as well. Coincidentally, she also blamed my schedule.”

  The fact that she blamed my schedule still pissed me off.

  “How long were you two together?” Julianna tilted her head to the side slightly as she waited for me to answer.

  “Just over two years. What about you and your ex?”

  “Three, I guess that’s my unlucky number now…right?” She nervously chuckled at her question.

  Three girls he cheated with, three years they were together, three days they had been broken up. Well, now we could turn those negative three things into some positives.

  “Three is my jersey number and my lucky number, maybe it could bring you luck now.”

  What the fuck? Did that shit seriously just come out of my mouth?

  “Are you always so cheesy?” Her eyes widened in surprise before she shook her head at me.

  “You know what? I don’t think I’ve said anything that cheesy since high school,” I laughed.

  That was the gods honest truth. I hadn’t said anything like that since I started dating Celeste when we were freshmen in high school back home in Atlanta. That shit was cool back then, now…probably not that much.

  Julianna looked pensive as she pursed her lips, “So, when you say your girlfriend blamed your schedule, did she mean during the season?”

  I shook my head before I found the words to answer, “She just started cheating on me I guess. About a month and a half, I believe was the final verdict.”

  “But it’s not even soccer season,” she said defensively before catching herself, “I mean, it’s just going to be starting soon, so haven’t you been home for the last few months? I can see that you probably have practices but those aren’t 24-hour things.”

  Holy fuck. I had known this girl for all of a fucking hour and even she understood that it was wrong to blame my schedule when soccer season hadn’t even started yet.

  “Exactly what I said to her when I caught her,” I sighed.

  We took a moment to let our conversation sink in. Nothing about the silence between us was awkward, which was a huge first for me. The number of awkward silences I had to endure with Natalie, and every other girl I had dated since high school, were so numerous that I couldn’t even count them on one hand.

  Cars whizzed by us as the traffic light turned green, we were sitting on one of the busiest streets in Saint Louis Park on a Saturday night. We probably looked like we were crazy to be sitting outside talking like this in the middle of January. But what did I care of what others thought about what was happening between me and Julianna?

  Julianna broke the silence before I could come up with another question to ask, “Since you’re not like your friends, that makes you a serial dater…right?”

  “I guess you are right,” I chuckled, never really thinking of it that way, “I was never for the one-night stands.”

  She smiled shyly, “Me neither, I can’t just go and have meaningless sex with someone. It wasn’t…”

  When she trailed off, I found myself picking her sentence right back up, “How you were raised? Same here.”

  Her eyes met mine as she processed the fact that I just finished her sentence. Hell, even I was working on processing it. That was yet another thing I had never done with any girl I had ever been with. Not even Celeste, and we were together for four fucking years. The blue of Julianna’s eyes looked darker when they weren’t lit up by the fluorescent lights of the bar, but it didn’t make them any less enticing.

  I found myself leaning towards her…it was now or never to kiss the lips that I had been wanting to kiss sinc
e I caught her in my arms, “How do you feel about kissing right after meeting someone?”

  Her eyes focused on my lips as she quietly stated her response, “I don’t know, I’ve never done it.”

  My voice gave out as I got so close that I could feel her breath against my lips, “Me neither.”

  Our lips touched and the world around me exploded. Being the serial dater that Julianna labeled me as, I had never kissed someone this early on in the short time that I had known them and now I was honestly questioning why not. If I would have put off this kiss any longer than I had—which was an hour to be exact—I think I would’ve forced myself to jump into traffic for being such a fucking idiot. I had never felt what I was feeling as my hands found their way to Julianna’s warm cheeks, my lips silently coaxing hers open for me.

  When Julianna granted me access, I nearly lost all control. My tongue met hers and a quiet moan escaped from her. It wasn’t one of those moans where a girl would just do it to boost your ego, it was one that I hadn’t even experienced before, like this was one of the best kisses that she had ever experienced. Don’t get me wrong, this was one of the most amazing kisses I had ever had in my life, but I couldn’t even imagine Julianna not having a good kiss like this.

  I found myself pulling away just so I could look at her. She was panting like I was, her face even more flushed under my hands than they were before our kiss.

  “Wow,” I admitted breathlessly. That was literally the only word that filled my head.

  Her eyes refocused on my lips and I watched as they dragged back up to meet my eyes, “Can we do that again?”

  The husk in her voice was something that I never thought would turn me on as much as it did. This girl was already melting into a puddle for me, but this time…I was melting with her.

  I laughed quietly, “Most definitely.”

  Kissing her again, the world dropped away as it did before. There was nothing around me except for the two of us sitting on this bench, our lips locked. When she let out that quiet moan again, all I wanted to do was take her home and show her how good I could make her feel. But, we had only known one another for an hour and that would probably be very frowned upon. Our tongues danced together, and I had never found a rhythm with someone as easily as I found one with Julianna. That had to say something, right?

  I was suddenly very happy that I had only had one beer and was completely sober for this moment. All of my other friends were going to be barely sober for their hookups, but for me, I was as present as though I hadn’t had any alcohol at all. Letting go of her cheeks, I snaked my arms around her waist and pulled her closer to me. The second that her fingers began to play with my hair after her arms were in place around my neck, I never wanted to leave this position. It felt like this was so right, that we hadn’t just met an hour ago. Julianna was meant to be in my arms just as I was meant to be in hers.

  Just as I was taking the kiss a little deeper, a quiet voice called out from Julianna’s pocket. It sounded oddly familiar and when it rang off again, I realized it was a character from the movie Despicable Me. While I was a twenty-five-year-old male, I did love that movie just like everyone else on the planet. I mean, with those minions, how could you not? Julianna and I broke apart, laughing quietly as she took her phone out of her pocket.

  “I love that movie,” I confessed to her.

  She smiled at me, “Me too.”

  My phone rang off in my pocket, a boring normal notification sound. I needed to go onto the iTunes Store and get myself a cool ringtone after hearing hers. As Julianna looked at her phone and giggled, I brought out my phone and looked at the text that Bo had sent me.

  Bo: I told you to go fucking talk to the chick from earlier, not run away with her.

  Me: I am talking to her. It’s called a conversation, Bo. Maybe you should try it out before you start thinking with your dick.

  Bo: Yeah, well now you’re running away from all the hot chicks that are in here.

  “Your friends asking about you too?” Julianna asked from beside me.

  I rolled my eyes at Bo’s text and refused to answer, “Yeah, my friend Bo thinks I ran away from the quote/unquote ‘hot chicks’.”

  Julianna stood up and giggled, “Sounds like a keeper of a friend.”

  I followed her lead, “He has his moments. Besides, I ran away to be with my own ‘hot chick’.”

  “You think I’m hot?” She quietly asked, as though she was surprised by my use of words.

  I took her back into my arms, “I wouldn’t have made out with you on a bench on one of the busiest streets around if I didn’t.”

  That was the truth. If I didn’t feel some sort of attraction towards a girl, I wouldn’t kiss her. What was the point in leading the girl on if you didn’t feel anything? But shit, did I feel a whole lot for Julianna. Feelings I had never felt before, it was an odd sensation. Julianna pursed her lips as she looked deep in thought. Her brows were furrowed, and a few lines showed up on her forehead. What in the world was she thinking about?

  “What’s going on in that head of yours?” I questioned as I rested my forehead against hers to help her get out of her head.

  “It’s going to sound really strange.”

  Oh honey, I was all for strange. “I like strange…”

  Her eyes met mine and I could see the emotion that was behind them, “When we go back in to our separate groups, this is all going to end…isn’t it?”

  I smiled, trying to show her that I didn’t want this to end, “It doesn’t have to end here, if you don’t want it to.”

  She giggled, “Are you trying to be cheesy now?”

  “Admit it, you’re loving the cheesiness,” I laughed and pulled her closer against me.

  Her arms wrapped back around my neck as she teasingly rolled her eyes, “It’s really got me swooning.”

  I raised my eyebrow at her as I grinned, “Well, I finally got you to swoon. That says something.”

  “Shut up and kiss me already,” she quietly demanded before she got up on her tiptoes and crashed her lips back into mine.

  There wasn’t even time for me to prepare how much my world shifted as our lips touched. You’d think after a couple of kisses already, that the feeling would just go away. But fuck that, this feeling was not going away anytime soon, and I wasn’t even mad. I could kiss Julianna all damn day if it was allowed. My phone interrupted our kiss and I silently cursed as I got my phone out of my pocket again.

  Bo: Get your ass back to the bar. Bro to bro, I’m getting worried.

  “Bo wants me to get back. In his drunken state, he’s worried about me,” I rolled my eyes and kissed Julianna’s lips after she giggled.

  I set up my phone to add a new contact and handed my phone to Julianna who put her number in. As we walked back to the bar, she gave me her phone and I did the same thing with hers. Giving our phones back to the rightful owners, I opened the door for Julianna when we finally got back outside the bar.

  “Thank you for going on a walk with me, Julianna.”

  She stopped in the small room between the two front doors of the bar and watched me walk in behind her, “Anytime, Finn.”

  The way she took control and brought my lips down to hers forced me to fight off just lifting her into my arms and carrying her back to my car. Just when you thought that Julianna was sweet and innocent, which she seemed to be most of the time, she changed tracks and took exactly what she wanted. She left me breathless as she released me and walked through the second set of doors into the bar. Well, fuck.

  I watched to make sure she got back safely to her friends before I rejoined my group at the bar.

  “It’s about fucking time, Finn,” Drake called out from across the loud group of men and women that now were in our group.

  I put my hands up in surrender, “My bad. Just needed some air.”

  When they brushed off my apology, I looked over my shoulder just in time to see Julianna looking at me from her group of friends. Over the cour
se of the night, our eyes continued to meet one another from across the room. There was never a time when I would like to play this game with a girl, Julianna was changing me.

  As soon as Julianna left with her friends, blowing me a discreet kiss as she walked behind the group, I made an excuse to leave. The second that I walked into my townhouse, I instantly regretted not bringing her back here with me. No, I wasn’t that desperate for sex, but we could have made out on my couch…or in my bed.

  It was really late and all I could think about as I got myself ready for bed was if Julianna got home alright. I also wanted to take her out on a date, was that weird? Oh well, too damn bad if it was. I climbed into bed in my boxers and picked up my phone off the charger to text her.

  Me: Hope you made it home alright. Can I take you on a real date?

  Julianna: I actually just got into bed, thanks for disturbing me. Lol.

  God damn it, now I was thinking about her in bed. I wonder what she wears to bed…

  Me: It’s all about the timing, have to ask you while our walk is still fresh in your mind.

  Julianna: Don’t you mean our kiss?

  Sassy, sassy Julianna. That’s obviously what I meant.

  Me: Maybe. So, what do you say? Dinner with me tomorrow night?

  Julianna: I guess one dinner wouldn’t hurt.

  Me: I’ll make it worth it.

  Julianna: As in, you’ll pay?

  What the hell? Why wouldn’t I pay? Oh, this had to do with her douchebag ex…didn’t it?

  Me: Why wouldn’t I?

  It took her a second longer than her previous texts to answer. Did she fall asleep? Did I say something to offend her?

  Julianna: Another thing my ex didn’t do very often, if at all.

  I fucking knew it.

  Me: Told you, he’s a douchebag.

  Me: Dinner date it is then.

  Me: Pazzaluna in Saint Paul, 6 o’clock.

  Saint Paul was one of those cities that sat in between most major cities. I wasn’t exactly sure where she lived, so this would be one of those places that wasn’t a terrible drive for either of us depending on where she lived.

  Julianna: I’ll be there. Goodnight, Finn.