David and Tina -Suddenly a promised fulfilled

“Oh my gosh. David! Is that you?” I had not seen David in nearly 20 years. We met when we were 8. I always had the biggest crush on him but he never had the time of day for me. When he moved to Arizona when we were 14 years old I thought my life was over. And I thought I’d never see him again. Who thought I would see him at a New Years Eve party for singles on 12/31/19  - but here he was. I just couldn’t believe it.

When we saw each other is was like there wasn’t a day missing in the past 20 years. It just felt so natural to hug him. It was a hug I’d been missing. 

He bought me a drink and we started talking about our lives. He had moved to Arizona all those years ago. At some point, he moved back to Indiana but I did not know that. He was living in Ohio at the time. He had a girlfriend for several years who he had lived with. I had a boyfriend for about five years. I remember, though, even with that boyfriend, David never left my mind. It was like he was always part of who I was. 

We talked fondly about that crush I always had on him. The news to me was he had always had feelings for me as well. When were younger we had very different lives. David was raised by a single mom who worked two jobs most of the time. He had a lot of freedom I only wished I had had. I was raised by a mom and a dad and was barely aloud to leave my yard. 

We reminisced about the times when we were about 14  - just before he moved –when he would sneak into my bedroom window after my parents had gone to bed. We would sit and listen to records on the record player, watch tv and may be do a little bit of smooching. David and I could sit and talk for hours. I reminded him of one time when he and I were talking on the phone. At that time, he lived just directly behind me in the house across the alley. I couldn’t recall what the conversation was about but I remembered him asking me to hold on for a minute. I said ok. It was dark and I was standing in the door in our kitchen. We had a huge snowfall the day before so the parking lot of the post office just next to my yard had mounds of snow pushed up against the yard. I thought I could see something in the shadows of the white snow but wasn’t sure. Then it became clear. It was David. He was running across the parking lot and jumped over one of the hills of snow. He ran up to the door where I was standing, opened it – said nothing – and gave me a quick kiss. Then he turned and ran back to house. When he got back to the phone he just said ‘ok I’m back’. That night we barely talked about it but 20 years later on New Years Eve it was quite the topic. He said he couldn’t believe with some of the things like that that he did I didn’t know how he felt about me.  I just didn’t. 

The New Years Eve party was hopping. There were so many people and it was so loud it was really hard to hear each other. We decided to take a walk. It was cold outside but we didn’t care – we just wanted to spend time together. As we walked the streets of downtown Indianapolis, the festivities of the night were everywhere. We talked about how important it would be to be someplace to watch the ball drop at midnight. 

As we walked, we talked about how our lives had changed so much in all those years. Where had the time gone. We also talked about the fact that neither of us had gotten married or had children – we were very late compared to most of our friends. By this time, most of them were married with at least one child. We both wondered why we were different. David actually said what I had been thinking. He said “maybe we were just waiting on each other”. My heart just about stopped. Could he be right? Did we just have to go away and live our lives separately before the time was right for us to come back together. Was this the time. My heart was racing. My mind was racing. I kept wondering where this night would go. Would it go anywhere? Could it go anywhere? 

There was such a feeling of safeness as I stood there with David. I felt like my entire life was all of the sudden very safe and very ok. Nothing of my past was haunting me at that moment. It was as if time stood still. This is that same feeling I always had when I was with David when we were younger. He always made me feel so safe. 

As we walked in the cold, frigid night, David put his arms around me to keep me warm. We saw so many couples walking on the streets clinging to each other mostly because it was cold but most probably partly because of the night. It was New Years Eve!! The night when everyone gets a fresh start and has resolutions to make the new year better and different. How would my year be different. Would David be part of it? I kept imaging in my mind – hoping in my mind – about what could be a midnight kiss. I melted at the thought of David pulling me close to him and kissing me and saying Happy New Year. Would it happen. We saw a television with the New York festivities on. It was almost time. As we stopped to watch, my body chilled with excitement. And then it happened 10 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 1 !!!!!!