“I see you still hate crowds,” a voice as alarmingly pleasant as a seasoned sports commentator suddenly took me off my train of thought. I looked up, not prepared to see this absolutely gorgeous man standing right beside me. I felt my knees get weak a little. I stared into his eyes and felt like I was losing my sense of self in a black abyss. The intensity with which he looked at me didn’t help me restrain myself at all and it was the soft touch of his arm holding my shoulder that made me realize I seemed to need actual help to stand up in his presence. “Are you okay?” he asked, the sound of his vocals trailed in my ear drum like an echo.

“I’m fine,” I finally managed to say, after a pause.

“You look confused, don’t you remember?” he asked. So I did know this fine specimen of a man. How did I know this fine specimen of a man? He obviously wasn’t from around town. “Teresa, it’s me, Gavin.” He seemed a little disappointed in my poor memory, and the sight of his face muscles expressing any sort of discontent made me want to kill myself for causing it, but how could I know? This wasn’t the Gavin I remembered.

I looked into his eyes, a daring risk I might add, his presence had already stunted my ability to move around. Eye contact would surely paralyze me entirely. He was Gavin Miller alright. However, he wasn’t the Gavin Miller I had shared a pre-calculus class with twenty-five years ago, he was closer to the man I had probably spent a few classes day dreaming about growing up to meet. The irony, it seemed, was that he had been with me all along, waiting to bloom. Gavin had grown into the kind of man that you would focus all your mental energy on whenever you felt down and hopeless and just wanted to dream of a better life. He was the kind of man that you would find running through your mind on a white horse coming to save you from whatever torturous nightmares a maiden was experiencing. The years had been remarkable to him. His face posed no lines and his hair had just the right salt and pepper color that made you question his age, it felt like a mix of wisdom and energetic youth. He was dress to the nines and looked polished from head to toe, almost sparkling. I couldn’t believe it was him.

“Gavin. It’s so nice to see you.” So nice, I sound so desperate! I thought to myself. It was all I could think to say. He was virtually making me birth butterflies in my womb which headed to my stomach and made me feel something I hadn’t felt for a long time. Here was someone that I had never given a second thought to, crippling me with his mere casual presence. I couldn’t believe what he was doing to me, and I immediately began to plot my sweet escape. I was sure that he would pick up on my dreadful composure, as I was beginning to think I wouldn’t be able to hold it much longer. If you could call this holding it together.

“You look absolutely ravishing, Teresa. I knew I would have a treat in seeing you if I came back for the reunion.” His voice sounded like music, the gentle crystalizing of harmonies not often found together. He owned his voice with such measure that his perfectly broad shoulders and healthy physique made it seem like no one in the world could even hope to speak as eloquently as he was speaking to me right now. As if this wasn’t bad enough, he had just given me the most flattering compliment I had ever received.

What was happening? I felt like I was whisked away to a fairytale, and this was happening just by the miracle of his voice and the words coming out of his mouth, his gorgeous chiseled mouth. I knew that I had to get myself together, or he would think that I was swooning over him, excuse me, he would know I was swooning over him, which I’m sure was what most females would do in his presence. I had to be different from all these other girls. I hadn’t been even remotely interested in a man’s looks for so long. Even with regards to Sam, I was aware of what Janet could see in him. He was a nice looking guy, very wholesome appeal. However, Sam just never was my cup of tea. He just never did it for me. I never got the feeling with Sam, and here I was drowning in that feeling with Gavin.

I took my eyes away from him and focused on the people around us, hoping to regain some self-control.

“Who did you come here with?” he asked, earnestly.

“Oh, uh, I came here with Sam, but he’s sort of vanished with Janet for the time being.”

“So that leaves you alone?” he teased, a little smile creeping over him.

“I guess. You don’t look like you’re here with anyone either.” I pointed out.

“I just arrived. I drove all the way here. I had a lot on my mind and figured a long drive would help me take the edge off.” Hmm, interesting. Gavin had things he needed to take his mind off. Even perfect looking people didn’t seem to have perfect lives, but his crisp looking suit suggested his problems weren’t all that terrible.

“What’s been bothering you?” I asked. I figured if I could keep the attention on him, he wouldn’t have time to notice my nervous breakdown, and I feared I wouldn’t be able to talk about myself if he asked. Besides, what could I talk about? I spent my days at a diner, nothing happened there.

“Well, since we are at a reunion and everything. I don’t feel like my life is where I imagined it would be at this time. So I’ve been reflecting on that a lot.” He had a hint of sadness in his voice, and I felt compelled to hug him and tell him everything would be alright, but of course I didn’t, I was still trying to regain control of my motor skills.

I didn’t know what else to say so we stood there looking at everyone else for a few more breaths.

“How about you?” he asked. “How’s life been treating you?” Great. I had to talk now, and I had to talk about myself.

“Well, I don’t really have much to say. You know I’m still at the diner and all, family tradition.” I moped. I didn’t feel bad about being still at the diner, but my mother’s dying wish started to make it a tad bit unfulfilling, especially when I had to acknowledge it out loud.

“I love how you and your family stick together and support each other, my grandparents haven’t been very supportive of my choices since I left town. They think I’m turning into some sort of corporate cliché story. At first I didn’t mind them, but as the years passed it kind of started to bother me.”

“Your grandparents are adorable”

“They are. But their idea of me becoming a corporate cliché, or any kind of cliché for that matter is starting to ring true.” He took a sip from his cup after that. He looked as if he was letting all the time that had passed sink in. “I don’t really want to sour your mood with mine though. I think I’ll just step out for a bit.”

“Oh, I can walk you out, I don’t really mind.” Stupid little me. If he hadn’t sensed my pheromones by now, I had just revealed them myself. My woman juices had to be jutting out of my pores onto him with every breath I was taking. What else could drive me to offer my company when he clearly wanted to be alone? I’m sure he was like most men, his first instinct would be to assume I was down for anything. The worst part about it was that I wasn’t sure I wasn’t down for anything, especially with a man of his stature.

“That would be great actually, let’s get out of here.” He said, offering an inviting smile. I made a point to myself to not be that easy. We were going out to talk and that would be it. I didn’t have much of a reputation in high school, but I wasn’t about to start tonight. It may have been over a year since the last time I fooled around with someone, and I can’t even remember his name, as I had made sure it happened during an out-of-town adventure of mine, and only in the heat of the moment, which no one would ever find out about. Single life for a woman in her hometown at my age was grounds for discussion if anyone thought I had been getting lucky. I couldn’t go somewhere private with Gavin. Someone might see us leave together. I was the one that had to live in this small town after tomorrow, while everyone else could go back to their dream lives. The last thing I needed was the town gossip to include me losing my regrown cherry over a one night stand with an old classmate. Perhaps I was overthinking things, Gavin hadn’t made any clear advance yet, if anything, he seemed like he wanted to vent with words and not his body. Would that hurt my feelings? If he didn’t want to make a move, and just wanted someone to talk to? I started to get cold feet as soon as he took a step forward.

“Wait, I don’t think I can leave, Gavin. Sam and Janet might be looking for me,” I said as I peered again over the groups of people standing around reminiscing. They were evidently nowhere to be seen, and I blushed a little as I realized how stupid I was making myself look. I came off as a shy teenage girl. I could have told him the real reason that I was afraid of anything happening between us, leaving me with a new whore label in the morning, but I spoke as safely as I could.

He looked a little hurt by this, and strangely, that flattered me a little. “Come on. Just a quick stroll along the grounds. It’d be nice to get away from all this eighties music. High school was great, but the music of that era isn’t something I miss. Let’s go somewhere quiet. I promise not to bore you with my depression anymore,” he said, grabbing my arm and linking it with his. He led me out the side door next to the stage before I could even put up so much as a protest. I had gone from being paralyzed to being a puppet and he had the strings, my body moved automatically wherever he took me. The departure was much less noticeable than walking the entire length of the gym to the front doors. I had forgotten these doors were even here. The doors were perfect for our getaway out into the darkness.