A Long and Complicated Story of Parties, Kisses and Misunderstandings: Part Three

Ok, so where was I?

There was almost kisses, then there were drunken kisses, and then there was the first sober kiss.

It happened after the Enchanted evening, the next morning. Faye had left for work in the early hours (9.30am) and Emma and I were left on the sofa. So, we did what all young people of opposite sex do when they were kissing the night before and now find themselves sat on a sofa: We kissed more.

That day, I had arranged to cook steak for Emma, a non-steak lover. It meant that we had more time to kiss, and that they became steak-flavoured at some point. We also shared our first chocolate kiss, after a fairly successful attempt at soufflé.

Anyway, despite the fun that was had that day, it left me a little confused. Did the sober kisses mean she was liking me more, or was it just a bit of fun? The answer was the second, but I didn't find this out till later.

First, there was Emma's birthday.

During the day, we went to see Horton Hears a Who and to all casual observers (which include me) nothing had ever gone on between us the day before. I looked for it too, as a potential ease of the confusion mentioned before.

But nope. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. We watched a (admittedly good) film and went on our merry way to the pub.

It was there, after a drink, that anything began again. It started with a foot under the table, just interlocking with mine. Ever the cautious type, I made sure that I pulled away enough to see that it wasn't an accident. If she move her foot back to mine, I figured, she wanted it there.

She moved her foot back.

We ate and drank and we were merry, all the while playing a very cosy game of footsy under the table.

Towards the end, I took a trip to the little boy's room and upon my return I found that a good percentage of my drink had disappeared. A guilty grin put the blame on Emma. Also, Faye was driving so unlikely to drink cider.

That part would have been edited out but for the fact that it illuminates the conversation that then took place in the car on the journey home.

"I can't believe you drank my cider. That was my cider and I was treasuring it. I had JUST enough to get me till kicking out time and you drank it. You even had your own!"

This was me, sat in the back of the car and moaning. Because I'm a boy, the subtext here was "I can't believe you drank my cider?!"

"I think I've got some drink in my house. You can have some of that."

This was Emma, seemingly offering me some alcoholic drink at her house. But because she is a girl, this meant "You can always come back to mine for some drink...and more kisses!"

But I couldn't, could I. For one, the cautious me wasn't sure whether he was picking up the subtext correctly. It'd just be awkward if the whole thing was said as a joke, and I thought otherwise.

And even if it was a genuine subtextual offer, there was still the matter of Faye. It wasn't like we were deliberately hiding it from her, but telling her that we'd shared a few nights of drunken kisses when we were both quite tipsy certainly wasn't the way I wanted her to find out.

(She actually ended up finding out accidentally, via a lighting mistake on a beach in Poole. This also wasn't the ideal situation either, but at least our intentions were noble.)

So anyway, I laughed it off and that was the end of that. I was gutted of course. I was heading back up to Leeds the next day, and my last chance to spend time with Emma was spent giving her a hug and wishing to do much more than that.

When I got home, she was online.

"I'm sorry I didn't accept your offer for drinks", I typed.

I went on to explain why I couldn't, and she understood. The conversation eventually led to this point. (All sentences have been cleared up from the drunken MSN speak that they originally existed in)

Me: I'm gutted though.
Emma: What do you mean?
Me: Well, every time I go back up to Leeds, you end up confusing me.
Me: At New Years, you almost kissed me after Andy's party.
Me: You kissed me before I went back to Leeds for a week.
Me: But this time, nothing is going to happen.

The next bit, I SWEAR, is what she said.

Emma: You could always walk round mine and I'll confuse you again.

How could I refuse?! After checking that she wasn't kidding, and that she wouldn't fall asleep, I put my shoes back on and I headed round to hers.

It's a 30 minute walk to Emma's house. I did it in just over 15.

In her defence, she actually had drinks made up as she had promised before. So instead of my romantic notions of grabbing her as soon as she opened the door, we sat on her sofa and drank rather strong vodka and coke.

Then we kissed. Then we moved it up to her bedroom. Then, for the first time, I saw Emma naked (with the lights turned off). And now I was definitely confused.

I stayed at hers the whole night, which required staying very quite when her mum was getting ready for work, and left around midday. I travelled back to Leeds and we didn't speak about the events until a few days later.

I asked her where we stood. Did the sober kissing mean that she liked me more? It was here that I found out that no, it didn't, and that she just wanted to be friends. And I got annoyed.

Friends don't kiss each other! Friends don't invite each other for late night "drinks"!

I explained a day later, after examining why I got so annoyed at the whole thing, that she didn't mean "just friends". She still wanted to kiss me (heaven knows why) and didn't regret what had happened in the past. This wasn't "just friends". This was "friends with benefits".

I could do that.

We spoke regularly for the next few months we both had left of uni. The first day we saw each other again was a gorgeous sunny day. We cycled and we ate a picnic. We laid in the grass and discussed clouds.

And all I wanted to do was kiss her. I did, eventually. We were back in the same place we had been back at Easter.

We met more and kissed more. It was all very secretive because we weren't sure what it was so we had no idea how to describe it to anyone.

Then we went on holiday in Poole. We were caught kissing, which was both a rubbish way for friends to find out, but also a huge relief. We could cuddle in public. We weren't hiding anything.

Poole was the first time I ever felt like a couple with Emma.

I got the feeling more and more over the coming weeks. We made a make-shift bed on her living room floor (because her single bed is rubbish). We ate lunch and laid in the park. We were doing all the couple stuff, but without the recognition.

But how could I ask Emma whether things had changed? She'd say no, that this was all fun, and I wouldn't know what to say. Yeah, I'm a wimp. I even started asking the question once, but changed my question halfway in.

But, you know what? Despite the confusion and misadventure of the above story, the whole thing ends simply (some may say anti-climatically).

The final scene takes place in my bedroom. We were cuddling, and talking about life. This whole story came up, and we spoke about the weirdness of it all. Just eight months ago, we'd hardly spoken to each other. Now, we were lying in the same bed, sans clothes.

And I asked the question: "Why aren't we boyfriend and girlfriend?"

Beat.

"That's the boy's job."
"What? To ask if you want to be boyfriend and girlfriend?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. Do you want to be boyfriend and girlfriend?"
"Yeah."

And that was how it ended, a casual conversation in a bed, eight months after we first almost kissed.

:D

P.S. - A rather freaky epilogue to this whole affair is this story. For my birthday, Emma bought me a copy of Cosmopolitan as a joke, since I had stated that I enjoyed reading it. In the horoscope section, it said this under Aries:

A friend who confuses you will set a chain of events in motion that will lead to a relationship by August.

This was in the April edition of the magazine, the same month Emma first kissed me. I have stated on several occasions how much she confused me. And the whole thing became a real relationship in August.

Creepy, no?