January One

The way she kissed me was she leaned in real fast on that hotel bedroom, caught me by surprise. I had seen her at a booth in the bar downstairs in the smoking section. I watched her while I pretended to talk to my friends, and then we were here.

She didn’t take her dress off or anything, which this is the kind of thing I like. The mystery is more than good enough. She slapped at my chest, like counting time. Afterward she lay on me with her cheek on my lips, and I kissed it over and over. I didn’t know her last name, but I thought I could pick out every element of every atom of her.

We were like that, me kissing her cheek and her doing who knows what but breathing real soft, her hair spread over me like curtains, when the first fireworks went off. From the fourteenth floor we could see the whole city and those fireworks.

She shushed me, which I wasn’t talking by the way, and lifted herself. I followed her to the window. She put her right hand on the small of my back, the thing I was going to do. We could see the whole city and those fireworks, which was all we ever needed.