Page 16 of Summer Message

“Are you okay? You're sweating and it's kind of freezing in here because we're under the AC vent.” Kristina points up and I follow her finger. She's right. There's a vent blowing out cold air.

“I'm nervous.” I admit.

“I'm not. We've talked every day for a week and a half. I feel like I've known you forever.”

I know I look cheesy as hell with a big grin on my face, but I don't care.“Good. I feel like I know you too, but the first date is always so awkward for me because I tend to either ramble on topics I'm not supposed to talk about, or stare at the person like I'm doing now.”

Kristina laughs.“I usually talk so much that I tend not to get a second date. My energy has always been upbeat, talk to everyone, smile at everyone. My papa taught me that a smile could turn someone’s day around. It stuck with me. Plus, I was nine at the time and thought he was a genius. I listened to everything he said.”

“Sounds like a smart man. My granddad didn't like little kids, so we didn't start going around him until we were teenagers. He had a lot of health problems, so he got nervous with his equipment. I never learned anything like that from him. He’d tell me that I should always tell a beautiful lady how special she is and do things to make her feel like she's my whole world. I tried that once with my ex-girlfriend, but she thought I was smothering her.” I smack my forehead. “Sorry, ex talk shouldn't be allowed on a first date.”

Kristina shrugs with a smile on her face. It puts me at ease. “Hey I get it. I tend to bring up my ex in casual conversation. I always felt we learn from our past to make our future brighter.”

I shake my head in disbelief. “You're something.” I smile at her. It’s my turn at the register. “Hi, Matthew Collins. I reserved a lane. I'll need a size twelve shoe, too, please.”

Kristina is standing off to the right of me, out of earshot. She's on the telephone laughing about something. When she laughs she tilts her head, her nose crinkles, and she licks her lips before smiling so much that her eyes almost disappear into her cheeks.

“Lane 21, sir. How many games are you going to play?” the clerk asks me as he hands me my shoes.

“Um, can I pay for two and if we want more come up before the second game is over?” The guy nods and reminds me no food or drink on the lane, but we can have it at the table.

I thank him, pay, and walk over to Kristina, who’s still on the phone.

“Randi, go away.” Kristina laughs. She mouths that it's her cousin. “I'll call you later. Hang on a second. Matthew, are you a stalker? My cousin and her fiancé want to know.”

“I've never been called a stalker before, so no.” She repeats what I said. “I can send them my driver's license and my home address since I haven't switched it over to Tennessee yet. I can also give them my mom's number. She'll tell them what an angel I am.” I pop my eyebrows.

“They want to know if you have any siblings.” I tell them about my brother and sister. “They want their numbers because moms lie about how wonderful their children are.” Kristina and I laugh. “I'm not going to do that. I'm going to go bowl and eat a lot of fried food. I'll talk to you tomorrow. I love you guys.” She hangs up the phone. “I'm sorry about that. Randi forgot I had a date tonight and it's one of our midweek calls.”

We walk toward our lane. The bowling alley is typical. There are thirty lanes, two places to order food, a vending machine, and tables above the lanes. There's a step dividing everything. We sit down to put our bowling shoes on. Kristina starts laughing.

“What?”

“We need balls.” She says with a forced straight face.

I shake my head. This girl is like a teenage boy in some respects. She walks to get her ball which makes me laugh because she picked up a blue one.

“Now I have blue balls,” She announces proudly.

“Correction,ablue ball.”

Kristina sticks her tongue out at me as she places her blue ball onto the ball return. I find another blue ball, but kept it behind my back while she sits down to put our names into the score board.

I pick up her ball, holding it beside mine. “Kristina, now I have two blue balls.”

“Well now, that’s something I can help with.” Kristina casually says as she continues to set us up.

I nearly dropped my blue balls onto my feet, but I caught myself first.

“Ready? I'm going first.” Kristina stands up as she puts her hair in a ponytail. “Might want to step back and watch a pro at this.”

We're standing face to face. I cup her cheek and instinctively lean down to kiss her. I know we're in a public place, but I needed to touch her. She kisses me back and wraps her hands around my waist. It's a tender kiss. We break apart and she smiles at me.

“I want to do more of that.” I whisper in her ear.

She blushes as she walks over to the ball return. We play the first game with a lot of smack talk and banter. We decide that we're hungry, so we go order a bunch of food. They told us that they’ll bring it out to us.

“This Saturday there’s a BBQ at one of my teacher's houses and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me.” Kristina asks me.

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