A Final Fling

The sun glints off her wet, lower lip. Her hair is the golden brown you used to see in cigarette ads. I don’t realize I’m staring until the other members of her table stare back at me. I quickly look down at the bubbles in my overpriced, champagne of bottle beer. I feel my face redden as the wind brings their titters of laughter to my ears. “Damn, you’re off to a great start!”

I’m racking my brains for some witty remark that will give me the courage to go over and meet her, but every time I gaze at her I immediately start fantasizing. God! The goddess of my dreams is sitting there not ten meters away, the wind gently lifting her soft hair off of the tan curves of her shoulders, laughing at me. Well, at least she knows I’m interested in her. At least I don’t have a drool string flapping from my mouth.

Uh oh. She’s coming this way. Oh my God! What am I going to do? Oh… She’s just going to powder her nose! Whew! I hurriedly squeak an order for another cold one. Calm down. She goes to the bathroom just like you. Geez, what are you an infant? You, who’s enjoyed innumerable women and have paid innumerable doctors’ bills, are falling apart. It must be Key West. You always lose it in the Keys.

“Hi!”

“Huh? Me?”

“Yes. Hi! How are you?”

“F_fine.”

“My girlfriends noticed you were staring at me.”

“Yes, it was rude of me. I, I was fantasizing. (That’s great. Tell her the truth, you dolt!)

“What kind of fantasy were you having with me? Did I have my clothes on or off?”

I’m losing all control now; my hormones are screaming at me. To bide for time I concentrate on pouring my fresh beer into the glass…into the glass. That’s it, nice and easy. OH NO! I poured the beer too fast and now it is rushing up to crest over the lip of the glass; but this time I’ve created a tsunami of foam that will run down the bar. I instinctively do what I have done in my many years of beer drinking - I slurp the foam as it reaches the top of the glass; but this time I slurp so loudly that now the entire bar is privy to my predicament. Their smug looks say they don’t think I have a chance with the goddess.

Gently laughing, she says, “I didn’t mean to upset you!”

“Oh, you didn’t upset me; it’s just that I’m not used to these new fast-pouring beer bottles!” (Oh my God, you didn’t say that!)

“Sooo…?”

“So… What?”

“So did I have them on or off?”

“Oh. Oh, I didn’t get that far. I was.. I was…”

“You were…?”

“I was trying to think of some way to meet you. I was trying to think of something original and witty but I was sidetracked.”

“What sidetracked you?”

“Well, I’m a little embarrassed to say, but, the-sunlight–was–reflecting-off-of-your-lips-and-I-was-wondering-what-it-would…”

“Slow down a little,” she says as she places her smooth hand on top of mine, right on the spot where the beer foam is drying.

I look at her hand on top of mine, and then at her, and hear myself, saying, “I was wondering what it would be like ”– her lips are glistening at me – “to kiss you.”

Now I know what a pregnant silence is. The ceiling fan rhythmically beats the air. The drone of a passing motorboat grows and then fades.

Then she softly says, “You can find out if you want.”

Aeeeya!

“What?” I’m dumbfounded now.

“Come on.”

I hastily pull too many bills out of my wallet and toss them at the bar. As the bills flutter to the bar, I dimly notice the surprised expressions of the patrons. I hear the giggles of her girlfriends as the goddess leads me to her palace. The hotel doors glide pass me as we walk down the hall. I see her soft hair swaying to and fro on her tan back. I feel my heart will explode any second, and I’ll wake up between sweat-drenched sheets; but no, she opens her door and takes me into my fantasy.

* * *

My eyes snap open. The morning sun is high in the sky, bathing the room with an illumination humans have yet to mimic. Am I really here? Did last night happen? The sheets are crisp and make that sliding noise as I reach over for her. She’s not there! Where is she?

She walks up to the bed, smiling, a carry-on in her hand. The miraculous sun glints off of something on her finger. A diamond! Oh, no!

She sees my look, and says, “No, I’m engaged. My girlfriends gave me a bachelorette party here in the Keys. You are my unplanned final fling!”

She bends over and softly kisses my cheek and whispers, “you’re wonderful”. Her honesty shines in her silvery blue eyes. She gives me a final radiant smile as she softly closes the door behind her.

I see the sheer curtains billow from the salty breeze, the aquamarine sea flashing in the sunlight. I look down and see the shadow from the hill made by my foot spread across the white linen. For some reason, I remember the story about the Zen master and the panther:

The master is fleeing from the panther along a precipice. Unwittingly the master runs off of the cliff, but grabs some roots sticking out of the cliff face as the panther falls to his death. He sees that the roots will not hold much longer and his fate will follow that of the panthers. He sees a ripe red strawberry hanging from a bush that is within his reach. The Zen master plucks the strawberry from the vine, and eats it.

Lying alone on the sun-drenched bed, I smile. I was her final fling but I tasted the sweet presence of a goddess.

Spring in the Florida Keys, 1987