MISSING DATES

THE PICNIC

I had never made out with anyone in a car before. It sounded weird when I thought about it, because I’ve kissed and been kissed by a few different people over the years, so the opportunity should have presented itself at least once. I've had a good-bye peck after being dropped off at my house or an enthusiastic hello after being picked up, but there hadn’t been any good, hands under shirts, sweating and panting make-out sessions on four wheels before.

Until I found myself with Lisa in my car, parked in a far corner of the local park’s parking lot, going at it in the front seats like the teenagers we were. My hand had even managed to make its way past the hem of Lisa’s shirt so that I brushed against the smooth skin of her side. She hadn’t protested or batted my hand away, so I decided to ride my luck as far as I could (though not too far—we were in public, after all).

Our day had started out innocently enough. Lunch in the park on a perfect spring Saturday had seemed like a great idea when I had suggested it and Lisa had immediately agreed.

Our mistake had been to discuss our plans in front of Chaeng and Jisoo at lunch. Bad idea because instead of a romantic picnic with a cute girl, I’d be spending my Saturday afternoon with two extra people who had invited themselves to tag along. For the second time they’d be crashing one of our dates, which was not cool at all.

I planned to pick Lisa up, then we'd meet up with the other two at the park. We all agreed to a potluck-style lunch, and Chaeng volunteered to bring blankets for us to sit on. Jisoo proclaimed that a picnic would be a waste without some games. She was bringing a Frisbee and a paddle ball set she said she had somewhere in her basement.

Though disappointed with the date being ruined, I had still been excited when Saturday morning brought blue skies and plenty of sunshine.

I’d texted Lisa to see if I could come over earlier than planned and received an almost immediate confirmation back. After I’d loaded up my car with food and various other things (napkins, plates, and bottled water, just in case), I’d zipped over to Lisa’s house.

Her dad had opened the door, but right after we had exchanged greetings, Lisa had come barrelingout of the kitchen holding two bags.  Disappointed in the quick visit, but guessing that Lisa felt the same way about her parents that I did mine—namely, embarrassed to have them talking with my friends if it couldn’t be avoided—I’d followed her as she led the march to my car with a quick wave good-bye to her dad.

That’s how we’d ended up at the park two hours earlier than agreed. We had been talking only five minutes before I’d leaned over and placed a light kiss against her cheek mid-sentence. I couldn't help myself. Another couple of minutes had us full-on kissing across the center console of my car.

It was cramped. We both had to twist awkwardly in order to reach each other, and the gearshift kept on digging into my thigh. But it was worth it to finally be able to kiss Lisa for longer than a peck. Each of our dates after the first one had ended with a goodnight kiss and not much else.

I’d recognized a few years ago that being with another person intimately was an experience I really wanted to try. But something kept holding me back from going all the way with the people I had dated in the past.

While I thought about , and sometimes joked about it, I was nervous as hell about actually doing it. I didn’t know if it was because I never felt completely comfortable with whoever I was with at the time or because years of lectures from adults about the horrors of premarital had given me a complex. Whatever it was had ensured that I remained a up to the ripe old age of eighteen.

It wasn’t too bad. I scratched the itch, so to speak, when necessary, and I had never gone too long without someone to enjoy my time with. But the trust of what I imagined a long-term relationship was built around had always been missing. So I held myself back.

But when I was with Lisa I didn't want to hold myself back. I wanted to fling myself in her direction, to have her catch me and hold on to me. In a metaphorical sense of course, since I was pretty sure Lisa would have trouble catching a sack of flour, let alone a fully grown person.

She was different, and not just because she was a girl. I had in the past gone as far with girls as I had with guys, so it wasn’t a gender issue. I was one of those people who formed strong emotional attachments. In other words, when I fell, I fell hard. Which was great, because Lisa seemed to be falling right along with me, but there was also a danger that I’d land by myself one day, alone and broken.

I wasn’t alone in that car though. Lisa’s breath on my cheek when she pulled back to pepper my jaw with kisses, her hands as they gripped my sides, and the little noises she made that filled the car when I nibbled on her lips all reminded me of that.

I was amazed how the outside world just drifted away. I normally would have never even thought about engaging in a heavy make-out session in public, but there we were, the only things shielding our activities were the totally transparent windows and the solitude of a nearly deserted parking lot.

But the parking lot wasn’t totally deserted and the transparent windows were of little help when sounds of tapping intruded into our bubble. Lisa’s reaction was quicker. She pulled back fast enough to knock her head against the door frame. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings after being pulled so abruptly from our kissing, but when I finally noticed my surroundings, I winced at the way she was rubbing the back of her head.

The intruders were exactly who I expected. Chaeng and Jisoo were staring through the driver’s side window, Chaeng waving like a maniac as she kept on tapping while Jisoo looked disgusted. Best friends or no, those two were seriously getting on my nerves.

“Can we ignore them?” I asked Lisa hopefully.

“I wish.” She let out a sigh and turned resigned eyes to me. “Let’s go get this over with.”

I reluctantly agreed, but not without first darting forward and giving her one last, swift kiss.

The interlopers were on my side of the car. They had to take a step back when I opened my door to exit. “You two are really screwing me over,” I whispered before Lisa made her way around the car to where we stood. Chaeng's expression went quickly from surprised to guilty, while Jisoo rolled her eyes.

“Please, I almost vomited. There are some things that shouldn’t be done in public, and you two going at it is one of them,” she argued.