Number one

...or "I'm glad you brought your books"

This brings back a lot of memories. And looking back now, I see I was very stupid and gullible. But we have all been there, haven’t we?

It was my first year of university. I had met this very nice girl, Maria, a friend of a friend. I used to sit with her in every class we had together, and make fun about pretty much anything, but specially, ahem, sexy stuff. We were genuinely flirting from the very beginning, but we couldn’t really see it. I was 18, I had kissed a fair share of boys but things never seemed to work out for me. She hadn’t even kissed anyone yet. I fell in love with her without even realising, and I guess it happened like that for her as well.

One night, we decided to go out partying with my friends, and I had agreed with my parents that they would let us sleep in their bed when we came back. That night, dancing with her, I realised I wanted her. Imagine how it was to sleep and wake up next to her, even if we had just cuddled up like friends. I wanted to kiss her so badly, so I leaned on her chest and started kissing her neck slightly, making my way up, using funny noises to release the tension. When I was about to get to her lips, my sister entered the room to wake us up, and the world fell on me, as I thought I would never have the chance to do that again.

I wanted to ignore what happened, but I couldn’t. I told her I had wanted to kiss her. And I told her that I had feelings for her. She told me she had wanted to kiss me too. I hadn’t been in uni for that week because I was sick, so there had not been another time for me to kiss her. Until Friday. We had a Russian exam and Maria told me I could come to her flat early that day (she lived in campus, and I had to take a 2 hour train to get to uni) so we could study together. I told her that if I saw her, I didn’t think I could hold my wish to kiss her. She said we’d just let things flow naturally.

I got there at 8am, not having slept at all. When she opened the door, I realised I didn’t know if I’d have the courage to kiss her. So I walked in and we studied like nothing happened. She was sitting on her couch, holding a Russian grammar book opened, reading out loud something. I saw my chance, it was now or never. I approached her. She got very nervous and started talking very fast. I bent down in front of her and took the grammar book from her hands. I said “I think there’s something I need to finish” and I started kissing her neck exactly on the spot where I was the week before. It took me a minute to build up the courage, and I finally kissed her. It was new and tender. I knew I wanted to do that all day, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hide it from anyone. We kissed until exam time. May I say, it was a disastrous exam because I couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss. It was a happy ending one: despite facing many obstacles, we were together for almost a year, and she was the most special person I’ve ever been with.

She will always be #1.