The Kiss at Dawn, A Steak Through My Heart.

(Photo: Me and Mellody the month we were married.)I wrote this some time between Mellody and I dating and getting married.  We've been married since 2007.

An Excerpt from Life

There's a time somewhere between night and morning where a tired purple flirts with a distant soft blue.  The moon shimmers low in the wake of waves rushing up and down the vacant beaches, and a creeping luminescent, advancing slowly, highlights the profile of a cloud Charlie didn't know was there ten minutes earlier.  It brings an enchanting feeling of life, of expanse, to the reclusive darkness that has accompanied him through his night's activities, and highlights the cheekbone of Harmony laying six inches across from him on the mattress that he pulled into the living room to make up for his lack of a couch.

She gasped for a second darting her eyes out the span of living room windows and quickly back to his.  "The sun's coming."

Charlie never took his eyes off of her beautiful youth filled face.  "I know.  I like this part of the night." He said.  "It tells everyone that they're supposed to go home." He said, letting his thoughts drift back to the many times that he's seen this same light only in so many different locations.  This one would stick with him for the longest. 

He's only been plagued by this feeling one other time; it was a little earlier in the night, many years ago, but the feeling was the same.  It turned itself so distinctly in his gut that there was no mistaking it with any other.  It was a frightening feeling, intense, nerve racking and tranquilizing at the same time like some bizarre acid trip that seers a permanent trace of itself into the heart.

They lay there in silence for short moments that lasted mini-eternities.  Charlie was mildly surprised that Harmony hadn't turned her face from his yet.  It's not a natural occurrence for two bodies to face each other so closely, letting their breath dance with the other's.  The intensity and simplicity of Charlie and Harmony's unspoken words blanketed them in the cool of the tropical morning that hadn't yet arrived.  Charlie let one more breathe escape, noticing the very aware gaze of Harmony's eyes.

"Harmony…" He whispered.

"Yes?" She replied, just as quiet.

A lone car drove down the street 8 floors below breaking up the constant sound of the beach on the other side of the building.

"I want you to kiss me."

"What?" She said, slightly aback, with color rushing to her face.

The sound of Charlie's heart beating made it difficult to hear her response even though he anticipated it.  Neither of them moved from their positions.  Six inches away Harmony's heart was beating so fast that it scared her.  She thought she might pass out soon and this moment would never come again.

"I think that you should be my Girlfriend." He said, again just as quiet and trying to speak slowly to counter the adrenaline effects in his nervous veins.

Harmony's eyes took flight trying not to betray her anxiousness, even though it was the one thing that gave her away.  She shifted her weight onto her stomach with her hands clasped underneath her chest.  She moved her head to face Charlie's who hadn't moved and then turned it forward again to bring her gaze back out to the window where more clouds were visible and the colors of the surrounding building were fairly distinguishable.

"My heart is pounding right now." She said to Charlie as if to explain her obvious fidgeting.

Charlie, who hadn't moved, reassured her, "So is mine.  It's racing."  He didn't mind her fidgeting.  He knew her to be a space cadet from their very first date.  He thought it was cute. It was cute in an obnoxious, lost to oblivion sort of way but cute none the less.  He knew that it was only in situations that she wasn't used to, a nervous reaction, which he had a knack for bringing out of her.  He liked to keep her on her toes as it kept him on his.  It was falling in love.  It was falling in love without conventions; the kind that just sort of happened.  It was sickening and about as addictive as crack.

"What makes you nervous?" He asked.

"It's just that…"  Harmony's head entered the distant space that Charlie knew well of but had never been to.  "Umm…  Do I get a day to think about it?"

"No." Charlie replied.  "You have to answer yes or no." He said softly.  "And you have to kiss me before the sun rises today."

"Oh really?" She said, taking the audacity of Charlie in strides.

"Really." He rejoined.  "What are your concerns?" He said, after a pause.  "What bothers you?  Tell me about it."

"I…  Well, there's just…  I have an ex."

"The one that's married?" Charlie asked, recalling a conversation they had had before.

"No.  That was a couple of years ago.  This was my last boyfriend and we talked today." She said with strange reserve.  "Well, all week…  We've been talking and it was, it's just, he's, well…"

Harmony didn't make much sense with what she tried to say.  It was clear to Charlie, though, that another guy was lodged inside her emotions.  He knew all about that type of ex.  He had barely gotten over the last one that was lodged far in his head.

But Harmony's actions contradicted her.  She went out of her way to come over to Charlie's house tonight at 3 a.m.  She called him consistently and when he looked at her during their frequent early dinner dates, before she had to be at work, he repeatedly saw the anxiousness of a girl that was figuring out how to be with a new guy.  Charlie let the Girlfriend proposal slip away to the back-lot of their conversation.

"Do you know what those lights are on the top of the buildings?" He said, sitting up next to her, her on her stomach still.

Harmony looked out the window at the small red lights accenting the corners of most of the taller buildings next to Charlie's.  "Hmmm?"

"They're aircraft warning lights.  They come on automatically at dusk and turn off like clock-work at the designated time of Sunrise."

"I didn't know that." She mused.

"It's almost time for them to turn off…" He said.

"Oh yeah?" She replied.

Charlie propped Harmony up gently by the back of her shoulders and faced her in front of him, both of them sitting erect on the would be couch.

"Do you want me to make it easier for you?" He asked her, watching her as she cleared a lock of hair from her eyes.

"How?"

He touched her face and ran his finger down her cheek onto her neck before bringing his hands back.  A small bit of color refilled her cheeks, if any of it had even left.  He brought his hand to her chin again and tilted his head in to close some of the gap between his lips and hers.  Harmony brought her lips to Charlie's the very instant that Charlie moved, and locked her lips around his bottom one.

Her lips were cool from the sip of water they had both just taken after sitting up.  Her tongue lightly grazed Charlie's as they moved their lips to come in for a different approach.  Any thought in Charlie's head about another guy in her life quickly vanished and any reservation that Harmony hid behind instantly evaporated as she brought her hands to his neck and Charlie wrapped his around her waist.  He pulled her in closer and adjusted his head so that their lips could meet better.  If there was ice that needed to be broken between the two, it was quickly melting.

As Charlie glanced out the window in between looking at Harmony, he noticed that the light atop the building next to his had gone out.  The Hotel farther down was still burning red but the present light from the sun, still low enough to look at, deemed it rather useless.

Charlie pulled Harmony into a firm squeeze and she buried her head between his neck and shoulder without letting go of his chest.  He wondered if she was smelling the cologne he had put on before he went out that night or if she was just as exhausted as he was.  The conversation that they had after lying back down didn't go in any particular order; it was probably just more filler before passing out than anything but something stuck out sharply in Charlie's head.

He fell in love.  This is the night that Harmony stole the many scattered pieces of a heart he guarded so well.  Tonight, Charlie knew that he loved her.  It scared him.  He loved her and all it took was a kiss.

Comments

[Rachel]

I Love this!

[Chad Tabary]

So did she ;) I've had it for years. It was up on another website a while ago, but blogging kind of went to the wayside after Facebook took over. I'll make This Blue Couch a permanent home. Building it over the next few weeks.