One Kiss

Aretha sat in front of her computer and slowly turned it on. She never thought she would be sitting in front of a computer trying to find a date at 58 years old but here she was. Her granddaughter had told her about a site for “old people” as she put it. Although Aretha didn’t think she was as ancient as her granddaughter thought she was, she agreed to have her granddaughter, Adina, help her make a dating profile. Aretha didn’t think anything was going to come out of it but she was tired of being alone and tired of not having someone other than her big sister to share her day with. So, here she was on a rainy Sunday morning trying to navigate her way to a date or at least a friend.

Aretha tried to remember if you swiped left for yes or no. Then she remembered that was only if she was on her phone on the computer it was different according to Adina. 

“Okay, here we go.” Aretha said to her cat, Bubbles, who was sitting on her lap.

“Bubbles, what do you think of Henry R. from New York?” Aretha, asked her cat as she put on her reading glasses to read his profile. It said Henry was born and raised in New York and was an Attorney in a law firm there. Henry was very attractive and dressed well in his pictures and he looked very professional. But, Aretha decided to click passed him and on to the next man. 

A few clicks and an hour later, Aretha clicked on a familiar face. She could hardly believe who she was seeing. She clicked through all of the pictures, re-read the profile and laughed. 

“Bubbles, look, this is Justice Miller. I can’t believe it!”

Justice Miller was the finest boy in the 8th grade at St. Joe’s Middle School. He was taller than most of the boys and had a smile that would light up ten Christmas trees. When Aretha looked into his big brown eyes she would forget all the words coming out of his mouth. He was athletic too and played on the baseball and basketball teams. Aretha tried to go every time they had a home game and cheered Justice from the stands. She had the biggest crush on him and vowed one day to marry that boy. But, she didn’t know how she was going to marry her since he didn’t know she had a crush but Aretha didn’t care that she was as much in love as any 8th grade girl could be back then. 

“It says he is divorced.” Aretha said to her cat who was now sitting near her feet.

Bubbles the cat wagged her tail and left the room leaving Aretha to herself.

Aretha decided to send him a message. She really didn’t know what to say after all these years so she just said that her name was Aretha and she was from California and would love to get to know him better. She crossed her fingers that he would respond and they could reconnect. 

“Granny, did you find someone?” Adina asked her grandmother as they were watching a movie the next day at her house.

“Find who?”

“Oh granny, don't be acting like you don’t know what I mean. Did you go to the dating site for old people and find a man yet?”  Adina said looking at her grandmother while sipping on her soda.

“Adnina, you sure are nosey. But, for your information I did.”

“Well, granny, who was it?”

“It is someone I went to school with. I had a crush on him years ago.”

“Wow, granny, they had schools back then?” Adina laughed.

“You got jokes huh?” Aretha responded.

“Seriously, Granny, are you going to hook up with him?”

“By hook up if you mean did I write to him well, yes I did.”

“ Well, that’s a start. Has he written back yet? And what did you say? Did you mention that you had a crush on him in the olden days?” 

“No, he hasn’t written back yet. He’s probably busy. And no I didn’t tell him about the crush. I am sure when he sees my picture he will remember me like I remembered him.” 

“Well, I guess you will find out because he just answered your message.” Adina said looking at her phone.

“Adina, you saved my profile on your phone?” 

“Yeah, I did it as a back up cause if you chickened out I could help you.” Adina said reading the message.

“Hello, Aretha, it was nice hearing from you. As you know from my profile my name is Justice and I am also from California and work at a Non profit company. It seems that we have a lot in common and like some of the same things. I am interested in getting to know you better if you feel the same way if you don’t mind can I give you a call or can you call me? Anyway, have a wonderful day my future friend.”

“Granny, it sounds like he doesn’t remember you at all.” Adina said scrolling down on her phone through his pictures. 

“Well, it has been a lot of years since the 8th grade and we both changed. He will remember me when he sees me I am sure.” 

“So, you are going to call him then?” Adina asked.

“Yes, why not? I am sick of telling Bubbles how my day went.” Aretha laughed.

Two days later Aretha arranged a date with Justice. She picked out a red dress, she remembered back in the day his favorite color was red and besides he would have no trouble finding her at the restaurant in a red dress. She had gotten her hair cut the day before and washed her car the day before that. She took one last look in the full length mirror in her bedroom and straightened her dress a little. She grabbed her purse and headed to her car. 

Justice chose to wear a red tie. He remembered her saying something about how she liked the color red and so he decided to wear a red tie with his black suit. He really enjoyed talking to Aretha on the phone and couldn’t wait to meet her in person. This would only be the third time he met someone from any dating site. He was divorced after a 20 year marriage and two kids. He wasn’t sure he was ready to date again until his daughter convinced him it was time to get back out there. She told him he was still sort of young and needed to find someone to spend the rest of his life with. Justice agreed but wasn’t sure he would find that person on any dating app. He was old school and liked to meet women in the grocery store, or while walking his dog but dating sites have become the sign of the times and he chose not to fight it and just go with it. He thought after all, what could it hurt? As long as he didn’t get one of those “fatal attraction” types of women that is where he has to go into hiding for a year. 

He laughed at the thought as he tuned his radio to the cool jazz station and drove to the restaurant. 

Aretha asked the server if anyone was looking for her and explained that she was meeting a blind date there. Her server said she must be the first to arrive because nobody was looking for her yet. She showed Aretha to a table near the window and asked if she wanted anything to drink while she waited. Aretha ordered water with a lemon twist. She was too nervous to drink anything else.

Justice pulled up in the parking lot and parked near the front of the restaurant. He smoothed out his slacks and walked to the front door. He did notice a woman wearing a red dress looking out of the window and wondered if that was Aretha. When the server told him it was he hurried over to the table and introduced himself.

“Hi, I’m Justice. You must be Aretha.” He said holding out his hand for her to shake.

“Yes, I am Aretha.” She was waiting for him to say something in terms of him recognizing her from back in the day. She watched as he sat down across the table from her and motioned for the server to come over as he ordered a glass of white wine.

“So, Aretha, you said you are from California. I am too.”

“Yes, born and raised.” Aretha smiled.

“Me too. My parents are from the South though. They came over here years before I was born.” Justice continued.

“My parents are from Louisiana.” Aretha said nodding her head.

Justice rattled on some more about his parents, siblings, kids, hobbies and job for the next fifteen minutes until the food came. Aretha couldn’t believe that he had no clue who she was and no clue that she was the girl who had a serious crush on him in the 8th grade and even in the 9th grade. She didn’t think she had changed so much she had become unrecognizable. But, here she was having dinner with a man who didn’t recognize anything about her not even when she told him they went to the same school.

“Justice, can I ask you a personal question?” Aretha asked.

“Sure.”

“Did you have a lot of girlfriends in high school?” Aretha asked thinking that might make him remember who she was.

“Oh, well, Aretha, high school was a long time ago. But, no, not really. I did marry my high school sweetheart, Lacy Gordon. We were married for 20 years. I barely remember anyone else.” Justice laughed.

“ I had a major crush in high school. Actually, it started in the 8th grade at St. Joe’s.” Aretha said sipping her water and wished she had ordered something stronger right about now. 

“You are so pretty that I bet a lot of boys had crushes on you too back then.” Justice said looking up at her with those big brown eyes she loved.

“Not really. I was tall and skinny and the boys never really paid much attention to me back then.” Aretha said, still wondering why he can’t remember her at all and realize that they were classmates. After all, she had the same face just a little older now and most of her former classmates remembered her when she ran into them from time to time. Justice was different though. There was not one glimmer in his eyes of recognition of her.

“But, you are a beautiful woman and I know you must have been a cute girl back then.” Justice said finishing up the last bite of his salmon. 

“So, do you run into people that you went to school with?” Aretha asked.

“I can’t say that I do. I am out of town a lot on business and since college I haven’t seen too many former classmates.” 

Aretha couldn’t understand how he could be so clueless. She had said and done everything she could think of to jar his memory but she got nothing.

“This has been a fun date, Aretha. I enjoyed it a lot and am I glad that you are a very nice person.”  Justice said as they got up from the table.

“Justice, I wasn’t going to mention this but do you remember me?” Aretha asked as they walked to her car.

Justice took a long look at Aretha and shook his head, no.

“I’m sorry if we met before I don’t remember.” Justice said apologetically. 

“Remember St. Joe’s, 8th grade?” Aretha asked.

“Yes. I do.” Justice answered, still looking at Aretha from head to toe.

“Well, Justice, I didn’t do this in the 8th grade but I am going to do it now.”

Aretha grabbed Justice by his red tie and pulled him close to her and gave him the most passionate kiss she had ever given a man since her husband. 

Aretha then turned and walked to her car. She did a half turn and gave him a little wave goodbye and a big smile as he stood there trying to take it all in. 

“He may not have remembered me in the 8th grade but he damn sure won’t forget me now.” Aretha said to herself as she sped out of the parking lot.