A week had passed since our first fantastic lunch date. To my delight, Alex had taken me to lunch every single day. Surprising me, he always had something new and exciting to show me on campus.

When Friday rolled around, I was dying to see him. First, I was excited to see what new adventure he planned to take me on. Secondly, and more importantly, I hoped Friday we would finally kiss. We hadn’t kissed yet. We’d held hands and hugged. But no kisses.

Tuesday, Alex took me to McGuire Hall to the Butterfly Rainforest exhibit. We wandered around the lush simulated rainforest landscape. We sat on one of the benches eating our sandwiches from Phil’s as the butterflies flitted around us. Alex named all the butterflies we saw: Scarlet Peacock, Gold-banded Forester, Emerald Swallowtail. So many butterflies that I didn’t even know existed, but Alex knew the names of all of them.

It was magical, the perfect moment for a first kiss. Just when he leaned in to kiss me, a class of preschoolers trundled by. A few of the little kids knew Alex and screamed, “Coach Alex! Coach Alex!”

Alex walked over to the kids and talked with them. He pointed out the nearby butterflies to the wide-eyed kids. Watching Alex with kids was incredibly adorable. It made him even more gorgeous than I thought he was if that was even possible.

When the kids’ teacher led them away down the path, Alex sat back down on the bench, smiling. “Who are those kids?”

With a crooked grin, he shoved his hand through his dark hair. “I coach soccer to some kids in town.”

Omigod. Can Alex get any dreamier?

For lunch on Wednesday, we went to the Asian Rock Garden in the Harn Museum on campus. The garden had a footbridge and trickling waterfall. Alex pointed out to me that the garden served as a backdrop for the art in the central gallery, emphasizing the interaction of art and nature. It was a perfect romantic place for our first kiss: art mixed with a nature landscape.

As we walked across the footbridge, we stopped to look at the waterfall. Gripping the wooden railing, I turned my head to look up at Alex. He bent down toward me. I screamed inside: This is it! This is it!

My internal screaming threw me off my balance. I shifted on to my tiptoes to try to reach his face, but the toe of my right shoe inadvertently got stuck in between the wooden slats of the footbridge. Luckily, as I tumbled to my right, Alex grabbed me, saving me from a dip into the lovely water exhibit.

“Whoa there!” His strong hands wrapped around my waist.

The hilarity of the entire situation made me laugh. I felt like I was a complete dork in front of Alex, but he still wanted to hang out with me. I started giggling hysterically. “If you weren’t here, I’d have to go to class all day in sopping clothes! I’m such a klutz!”

Chuckling, Alex said, “No. Don’t be embarrassed. You kinda did this pirouette thing.” He put his index finger on his head and extended his other arm while spinning around; his mimic of a ballerina. “Looked professional. You study ballet or something?”

We laughed for a good ten minutes at my clumsiness, but we didn’t kiss.

On Thursday, we headed to the Plaza of Americas for Krishna Lunch. “For the last thirty years, the Krishna House has served all you can eat vegetarian meals on the UF campus. It’s a Gator tradition. I had to take you,” Alex said as we waited in line.

Alex and I ate basmati rice, spinach and veggies in cream sauce, and halava with hundreds of other students sitting in the grass. As the daughter of Jose Fontaine, I rarely ate vegetarian meals, but this lunch was absolutely delicious.

Out in the grass with so many other students, I began to feel part of the university community. It was a wonderful feeling. This was what the college experience was all about, but surrounded by so many students; it wasn’t a great place to smooch.

I was glad Alex hadn’t tried to kiss me in front of so many people. My kissing experience was next to nil. I hoped that Friday he would take me somewhere with a tiny bit more privacy so we could finally kiss. All I could think about all week were his soft-looking lips and how they would feel on mine. I’d been religiously moisturizing every night with Burt’s Bees lip balm, readying myself for our momentous first kiss.

After class, Alex was where he usually was on the concrete benches, smiling. I wanted to run up to him and kiss him right there, but I was much too shy to do anything that bold.

“Fancy seeing you here,” I said, as I walked up to him.

“I just like hanging out right here on this bench. I get the best view of the prettiest girl in UF getting out of class.” He gave me that heart-melting smile.

I covered my face with my hands, giggling like a school girl. When Alex said things like that, it made me feel embarrassed and flattered at the same time. Whenever I had mixed emotions like that, the only thing I knew to do was laugh.

He gently grabbed my hands and brought them down from my face. Amused, Alex looked intently into my face. I thought: This is it. He is going to kiss me! His face was inches away.

I moved my face closer to his anticipating his lips to meet mine, but then I lost my nerve. I backed up, playing it off with another laugh. He chuckled and said, “We’ve got to get a move on, or we’ll never make it in time.”

He held onto my hand leading the way. “I thought we’d go to Lake Alice today. Have a picnic lunch on the shore?” Looking at me, he asked, “It’s a little bit of a walk. Sound good?”

“Sounds great,” I answered. Anywhere with Alex was amazing.

As we walked, he squeezed my hand. “Lake Alice is kind of quiet this time of day. Shouldn’t be a lot of people around. Is that okay?”

Yes! Of course, that’s okay!

Not wanting him to know I was over the moon with the idea, I acted casual. “That should be cool.”

Alex beamed. “Def cool. It will probably just be us… and the gators.”

“Gators?” I questioned uneasily. Was he joking?

“Yeah, but they’re harmless. I’ve done fieldwork on Lake Alice tons of times. The gators on campus are puppies.”

I squeezed his hand as we walked. “Big green puppies with gigantic teeth and strong chomping jaws.”

Alex laughed, putting an arm around me. “I’ll protect you from the big green puppies.”

I laughed, loving the way his arm felt around me. We walked the entire way to Lake Alice like that. It felt so good to be so close to him.

When we got to Lake Alice, Alex was right. We were the only people there that I could see. He laid out an orange and checkered blanket on the shoreline. We sat on the blanket looking out onto the lake. Alex pulled out our sandwiches from Phil’s and our mineral waters. We were both creatures of habit it seemed.

Normally, I would inhale a sandwich from Phil’s, but I was nervous about Alex kissing me with my sandwich breath. He handed me my Cubano, but I set it aside. Alex must have had the same thing on his mind. He put his sandwich to the side untouched too.

He took my hand in his as he swept his other hand over the lake’s view. “This is one of my favorite places on campus. UF wanted to turn where we’re sitting right now into luxury student housing.”

“Really?” I answered looking around. That would have been a shame. Lake Alice was so peaceful and beautiful.

Alex nodded. “Yeah. There were eleven years of organized student protest against the development.” He grinned. “That’s what I love about it out here. People saw the beauty in it and fought to keep it just the way it is.”

An adorable softshell turtle bobbed along in the water. “Thank you for bringing me here.” I paused, thinking over the entire week. “Actually, thank you for a whole week of fun lunch dates.”

“You’re welcome. I’ve had a wonderful first week of school. All because of you,” he said, looking into my eyes.

Blushing, I looked down at my lap. His fingers touched my chin, lifting my face up to his. Closing my eyes, I finally felt his lips on mine. They were just as soft as I had imagined they would be. He gently kissed me. His tongue caressed mine tenderly. It was gentle and sweet, and absolutely perfect.

When our mouths parted, he looked into my eyes with a dreamy expression on his handsome face. “Our first kiss was out here on Lake Alice. Perfect. I’ve got a new reason to love this lake.”

“I’ve only been kissed one other time before,” I confessed.

“Really?” He leaned in to kiss me again. Our tongues swirled around together as I ran my arms around him. “I would have never known. You’re a great kisser. Who was the guy? Someone I should be worried about?” Alex joked.

“Vince Gibson. On the playground.” Alex looked confused, so I went on, “When we were ten.”

He laughed and gave me a squeeze. “A beautiful girl like you? I’m shocked.” He paused before carefully asking, “Does that mean you’re virgin?”

I fidgeted with a loose string on my T-shirt, nodding my head. “Uh, huh.”

“Okay. There’s nothing wrong with that. We were all virgins once.” Pulling me closer to him, he gave me a kiss on the top of my head. “I have a game on Sunday at one in the afternoon. I was hoping you’d be able to make it. Are you free?”

“I’d love to see you play,” I answered then gave him a kiss on his cheek. “And thank you for not thinking I’m some kind of freak for still being a virgin at 21.”

He took my hands in both of his. Genuinely, he looked into my eyes and said softly, "There's nothing weird about that. You're the greatest woman I've ever met in my life. There's absolutely nothing weird about you."

Suddenly, we heard a splash in the middle of the lake. I screamed when I saw the eyes of an alligator skimming right above the water. I jumped up ready to run for my life, but the alligator floated along, minding his own business.

Alex pulled me down back on the blanket, laughing. “I told you. The alligators are harmless.”

Unlike anything I’ve ever done before in my life, I lunged down and kissed Alex full on the mouth. I felt like I was the luckiest girl in the world at that moment.