You & Me

by Tal Bauer

Football was incomprehensible to me. Sports were never my thing. As a kid, I cried when I was picked for the kickball team.

She should have been here, but she wasn’t. It was just me. The leftover parent. The last choice parent. I wasn’t who Emmet wanted, but I was all he had now.

“Food smells great.” The garlic was overpowering. If there were any vampires in Last Waters, the high school was safe for the next week. Maybe the next month.

He waited for me outside the bar, and, as predicted, he looked amazing. Snug jeans—which if I tried to wear, I’d look like an anorexic grasshopper—a dark fitted Henley that clung to his physique, and a faded ball cap. He held the door for me when we walked in.

How could someone make such a big impact on my life in so short a time? We hadn’t known each other existed a week ago, and yet, it felt like I’d known him for years, not days. Being around him was easy. Effortless. As natural as breathing.

I’m only allowed three sins, and I’ve hit my limit: Diet Dr Pepper, red wine, and men.

“You’re classically handsome. You have the face that all men want,” I said, grinning at him. “But there’s so much more to you. Your looks would be empty on anyone else. It’s who you are that fills everything in.”

“I can see your dedication in the lines of your face. Your work ethic in the cut of your jaw. I know you love life when I see you smile, and even when you’re not smiling, the laugh lines show you’d rather be. I know you’re a father when I look into your eyes, and I know you’re a good one when I see those eyes are kind. When you’re you, you light up, and all these different parts of you combine, and everything that you are bursts free. You’re like color exploding in a black-and-white world.”

“I’m head over heels for you, Landon. You came into my life and flipped my world upside down. Everything has meaning again. I can’t get you out of my head. Your smile and your laugh have become my sun and my moon. You brought color into my world.”

“You are the gradations of undiscovered colors in my soul. You are the inhale before my blank canvas, the moment before my pencil touches the page. You are the manifestation of my dreams. You are my intensity.”