What We Search For (6 page)

“I’m up for it if you
girls are.” Brad added. Chris nodded his head emphatically.

Looking at each other the
girls shared one of those magical moments, where women can understand each
other without actually saying a word or making any noticeable expression. Amanda
spoke up for them all, “I think that’s a great idea. I’d love to do some
dancing if you guys know a good spot?” She asked.

“Absolutely.” I responded.
“Are we ready to go now?” I continued, looking around at each person’s glasses.
Most of which were nearing empty apart from Chris’s freshly poured beer.
Looking up at him he understood the queue, and picking his glass up he downed
it in quick succession.

“Looks like that settles
it then! Let’s go.” I said standing up. I waited for everyone to sort
themselves out, and headed for the door, opening and holding it for the ladies.
I let each of them through and the boys followed. Leaving the pub behind us, we
walked into the fresh winter air.

Thankfully, the sidewalks
were not covered in snow today and we made our way to one of our favorite
clubs. As we approached, we could see a massive line curling around the side of
the club. “Oh no! What should we do?” Asked Jane, as she took in the length of
the line. She clearly didn’t want to wait for however long it would take.

“Don't worry about that.”
Chirped Brad, “We’ve got VIP passes for this place, so we should get in pretty
quickly.” He continued, as he walked to stand in the opposite queue.

This line was much quicker
than the other, as Brad had mentioned and within a short amount of time, we
were into the club and throwing our coats into coat check. Plucking up my
courage I reached over and grabbed Amanda’s hand wordlessly. She returned my
grasp and we made our way down to the dance floor.

Looking over my shoulder,
I couldn’t help but smile as it appeared the boys had made a choice of their
own. Brad was leading Jane just behind us and Chris led Sally. It looked like
we were going to have a good night after all.

Once on the dance floor,
we managed to form our little group and dance together. Brad shared a look with
Chris and they both smiled like idiots. I looked at them one after the other
and groaned as they mimicked my ‘cool dance move’ I had attempted in the pub.
The girls caught on and started laughing and finally joined in. There was
nothing I could do but shake my head and join in. Soon enough the six of us
were dancing in a circle throwing our arms in the air, trying to make my
earlier dance look as stupid as possible, and apparently it didn’t need much
help.

Our dancing circle kept
going until I reached over and took Amanda’s hand. Drawing her to me, we danced
together and the others followed our example. My heart was racing faster and
faster as less than an arm’s length away was the most beautiful woman I had ever
seen.

She looked up at me with
laughter in her eyes and a smile on her face. I couldn’t help but return the
smile, as it was more than infectious. I felt like a schoolboy with his first
crush, and I honestly didn’t know what to do. So I kept dancing. Brushing up
against Amanda, only to pull away as if her touch was electric.

We danced for what seemed
to be hours until finally one of the girls decided it was time to go. Walking
off the dance floor, we all moved together still dancing to the beat.

Collecting our coats we
left the club in very high spirits and agreed we should do this again sometime
soon. Parting ways, we hugged each other and wished everyone a good night.

Walking home alone I could
only replay the course of the night over and over in my head. Should I have
done more? Held her closer? Kissed her? No. No. Everything went smoothly,
including Chris, Brad, Sally and Jane seeming to get quite friendly. I couldn’t
ask for more so I tried to force it from my head and whistled my way back home.

Morning greeted me earlier
than I had hoped, with my blinds doing little to shut out the light of the sun
blazing through. Putting my hand over my eyes, I let out a groan as the extent
of last night’s drinking made itself aware. Rolling over I reached for a glass
of water strategically placed in case of such an emergency, and downed the
thing in a few gulps.

A long shower and some
greasy food was definitely on the menu for this morning. Everything from the
night before flooded back bringing a pained smile to my face. Totally worth it.
I had spent time with Amanda and it made me giddy thinking about it. Something
was different this time. I had been with beautiful women before, but something
was definitely different.

The day went by fairly
uneventfully, until I received a text message from Amanda saying how much she
enjoyed last night. It only helped my already amazing mood. I responded letting
her know I had a great time. If I had tried to learn one thing from years of
being an idiot, it was I shouldn’t push my luck and message her or call her
constantly.

I wanted to sing and skip
down the road, and the night had brought us snow. It continued now as I made my
way down Banff Avenue with nothing planned. I walked aimlessly until I spotted
Chris across the road, and waving him down I jogged over.

“Hey mate! How did you
pull up this morning?” I asked, as I came to walk beside him.

“Horrible. I’m never
drinking again.” He groaned in response.

“I know how you feel, but
at least last night was fun right?” I asked.

“True. It was fun, and
those ladies you introduced us to were something special.” He said, patting me
on the back.

“I honestly didn’t expect
you all to hit it off so well. Not that I had really met the other two before,
but everything seemed to fall into place pretty damn well!” I said, wrapping my
arm around his neck in a playful manner. Chris and I had lunch together and
spent the remainder of the day playing pool. So it went. Another day in
paradise.

Leaving the pub I stepped
outside into the winter air and came face to face with Haley. She smiled, “Hi
James! What are you up to?” She asked.

“Hey! Not much. Just been
playing pool with a friend and thinking about heading home to be honest.” I
replied, looking down the street longingly. I had nothing against Haley at all,
but it was all kind of awkward. Surely our previous encounter didn’t mean
anything, apart from the fact she had already stated she would be more than up
for round two.

“That sounds good. I’m
about to meet some girlfriends for a drink myself. We should totally catch up
soon.” She said, “We had fun together…” She continued, her eyes taking on a
smoky look as she touched my arm gently. Again I glanced away for a moment.

“Yeah we did.” I admitted,
“Sure. We can maybe grab a coffee some time?” I added, trying to keep it
casual.

“Let’s do that! I’ll see
you later. Have a good night.” She said.

“You too Haley.” I replied
curtly, as I turned and walked down the street.

I could admit
to myself I was lonely, but not for lack of trying. I just hadn’t been able to
find the girl I was looking for. While I had enjoyed my encounter with Haley,
it just wasn’t what I wanted. I was a romantic deep down, and I was looking for
someone special.

Now that I had
found someone special, it was a frustrating experience to know she was only
here on holiday. To top that off, I had another girl who I’d slept with and
thought was only going to be something in passing, turn out to show more of an
interest in me.

She happened
to live here as well. To be honest Haley was a nice person, and I had seen
nothing to the contrary, but I didn’t have any feelings for her apart from
attraction. Whereas the feelings I had for Amanda, more than outweighed that.

I wanted to
scoop up Amanda and run away with her, but I hadn’t had the chance to even spend
more than a day with her. I didn’t want to be seen as desperate. She was on
holiday with friends, I couldn’t just take her away from them. So my mind went
in circles. Was I going to lose this opportunity? Was it even an opportunity?
Throwing my hands in the air I gave up and walked along the street, head down
just thinking.

It was the third day since
Amanda had arrived in town, and I had responded to her text message yesterday
but followed up no further. Leaving a day in between was probably a good idea.
Picking up my phone I found her name and wrote, ‘Hey how has your holiday been
so far? I know you are probably busy with Jane and Sally, but if you get time,
would you like to have a drink with me, when you’re free?’ Pressing send I knew
I was looking into it too much, whatever the case, I’d obviously torture myself
until I got a response.

The response came hours
later giving me plenty of time to wonder. ‘That would be great, I’d love to.
Are you free tonight?’ She responded. My heart skipped a beat as I read
‘tonight’ forcing myself to put down the phone a second I gathered my thoughts.
I was definitely free tonight, and couldn’t wait to reply but before I did so I
took a breath. There was no reason to rush things, especially something I cared
about. After taking my moment, I responded with an affirmative and set the time
and place.

Getting ready for my date,
I changed clothes four times until I was satisfied. Did a teeth check and
splashed on some cologne, and left for the bar. Arriving early, I found Amanda
already waiting for me. She was sitting at the bar with a full glass of water,
playing with her straw. Looking up, she saw me and I went over to join her.
Both of us smiling.

“Hey.” I said, leaning
over to give her a hug. “You’re looking radiant as usual!” I said, making me
feel self-conscious for just a moment before she followed with a compliment of
her own.

“Handsome as ever I see.”
She said, smiling up at me.

“Don’t you start that.
I’ll get a big head.” I joked, as I struck my best pose. She whistled and
laughed as I sat down, “So how was your day?” I asked, settling in.

“Fantastic! We went hiking
along a creek bed and found a beautiful frozen waterfall.” She began, “How
about yours? Did you go snowboarding again?” She asked, “You were getting so good
at falling over. I wouldn’t want you to forget how!” She added. The smart-ass
in her making an appearance as she flashed a grin.

“I was getting good at
falling over? How about you? I wouldn’t be surprised if you fell into the
waterfall.” I said, with an absolutely straight face. Her reply coming as
laughter, I couldn’t help but join in.

“I fall over in an airport
one time. One time! You’re not going to let that go are you?” Amanda asked.

“You have to admit it was
pretty spectacular. There was nothing there for you to fall over!” I replied
with a grin of my own, “Oh and no. I’ll keep that one with me for life!” I
added with a laugh.

“Great. Now I’ll have to
pay double attention so I’m there when you do something stupid!” Amanda
replied, smiling.

“Bring it on!” I said
happily, as I threw some playful punches in the air.

“Oh it’s on.” She replied,
slapping at my hands as they moved.

“And no. I didn’t go
snowboarding today. If I did go, I’d be so good you’d never catch up. I’d have
to give you one on one lessons. It’s tough being a pro sometimes.” I said,
flashing the cheekiest grin I could muster.

“Thanks! That’s so kind of
you James. Such a gentleman!” She replied.

We spoke for hours of
small things and big. Family and friends, life, goals and past adventures. The
time flew by and my face hurt from smiling and laughing so much. My feelings
for her were growing at a rapid rate. And so was my despair. Knowing she was
leaving soon was frustrating,  I was just getting to know her.

“Thank you for
tonight. I had fun.” Amanda said, as we walked down the street.

“Me too. It’s
hard not to have fun when I have such an easy target to mess with all night.” I
replied with a wink. She threw a quick punch at my arm, which I just managed to
dodge, “Whoa! Violent much?” I asked, backing away from her slowly with fear in
my eyes.

“You’ll know
the true meaning of violence if you keep backing away from me like that.” She
said threateningly as she advanced.

“Alright! You
got me!” I said, coming to a stop with a grin on my face.

“Dick!” She
said with a laugh, as she punched me gently on the arm.

“I try my
best.” I replied, smiling and bowing in acceptance of my new title.

“I was being
serious!” Amanda replied, exasperated at my display, “I really did have fun
tonight.” She added, returning to my side as we resumed our walk down the road.

“So did I.” I
replied seriously this time, “I always do when you’re around.” I said quietly
as we walked. We reached the front of her hotel and Amanda turned to look at
me.

“Let’s do this
again before I leave. Okay?” She asked, looking into my eyes.

“I’d like
that.” I said, returning her gaze.

Our eyes
locked, and the silence dragged out slowly as we eased our heads together.
Reaching out I grasped her hand in mine and drew her towards me. Never looking
away from her, as our lips came together, we each closed our eyes gently. Our
kiss was soft and delicate. Lips meeting lips at first, yet just a feathers
touch, then building in pressure.