Butterfly

...Our Beginning p3...

The next evening he picked me up (very late) and took me to
the restaurant.
While driving there, he began telling me of all the
celebrities he knew and
of how he stayed in the apartment of Bono, the lead singer
of U2, whenever
he traveled to New York. This was truly the last thing that
I wanted to hear
about and the last thing I wanted was a man who would spend
his time bragging
about the people he knew and the places he went.

We arrived at the restaurant and he put on his sunglasses.
Okay, how foolish
could I have been to go any further. I realize the conceit
now, but then I
still continued to look past it. He walked in and they
escorted us to a private
dining room. It was beautiful and he pulled my chair out
for me once again
as I sat down.

We ordered our food and sat together in the room, while
outside, music could
heard and the talking and laughter of people in the main
dining area echoed
in our room. I remember thinking that I would love to go
out and be around
the people. ALthough the room was nice, it seemed almost
too private and the
people outside sounded so happy.

While waiting nervously for the food, I looked across the
table at him. There
was still that presence about him that I could not describe
even to myself.
Something drew me to him like a magnet. I just wanted to be
close to him. I
longed to kiss him for the first, second, third, fourth,
hundreth time. I longed
already to have him touch my bare skin. Never before had I
felt such longings.

He looked at me and I began to shake within. I was certain
that my incredible
trembling showed, but he asked me to dance. The music was
Harry Connick Jr.
and James got up from his chair and came to mine. I simply
wanted to be able
to touch his hand, his shoulders...to run my hands along
his back as we danced.
He took my hand and lifted me to his level. I was trembling
but I couldn't
understand why I was so very anxious. There was nothing
nervous about it...I
was simply overwhelmed by that incredibly anxious feeling.

We danced and I could barely move. As we did, I closed my
eyes and took in his
remarkable scent. He touched the back of my neck and I
shivered. It was truly
like some sort of story. This didn't seem real and never
before had I dreamt
that I would have been dancing with such a man.

The rest of the dinner truly seemed like an obstacle to get
to something else.
We finished eating and he asked if I was ready to go. In
disappointment, I
said yes. We walked out of the restaurant and into the
lobby of the hotel
where it was located.

"Come on" he said and he took my hand. He went to the
elevator of the very
old hotel and we waited for the door to open. Once inside,
I stood a bit of a
distance from him, uncertain of where we were going. The
elevator was slow
and he watched me as it moved its way to the floor we were
going to.