“Eli.”
FOUR YEARS BEFORE
“Can I take off the blindfold now?” I asked, getting annoyed. It had felt like forever since Eli picked me up at our sugar maple tree. He’d kissed me, wished me a happy birthday, and immediately tied a black tie around my eyes. “I haven’t seen a thing in over an hour!”
Eli laughed. “It’s only been thirty minutes. You’re such a drama queen.”
I huffed. “Am not.”
“It’s your sixteenth birthday. I want this to be special. Please, Bug?” Eli slid a hand over my thigh and rested it just between them. His slender yet athletic fingers tightened ever so slightly around my thigh and I stilled, not wanting him to move his hand.
The romance between me and Eli had blossomed naturally. I wished I could go back in time and pick the moment Eli went from being my childhood best friend to the love of my life, but it had happened so gradually. We were each other’s firsts in everything, and when it’s like that, I think it’s very hard to make a timeline.
Our first kiss wasn’t magical. Well, it was because it was with Eli. What I’m tryna say is that it wasn’t like in the books. He didn’t sweep me off my feet and know exactly how to kiss me and where to do it. With Eli, one day he was telling me to eat bugs and the next we were kissing under the sugar maple tree.
We were fourteen, talking about the silly and oh-so-important things fourteen-year-olds talk about, when he just leaned in and kissed me on the lips. I was so surprised that I sat there like stone for a good two minutes. Eli stared at me, waiting for my response. I hadn’t realized how much I wanted to kiss Eli until he’d kissed me. I hadn’t realized how much I needed to kiss Eli until he’d kissed me. It was like wildfire, the need to kiss him.
I hadn’t stopped kissing him since.
“Okay we’re here.” Eli stopped the car and removed his hand from my thigh. My thigh felt cold and lonely without his warmth.
“Can I remove the blindfold now?” I asked.
“Nope.” I heard Eli get out of the truck and slam the door. I waited patiently for him to come back (and also I was trying to sneak peeks underneath my blindfold). I almost snuck a look when my door opened, ushering in a breeze of fresh air.
“Time to go, Birthday Girl.”
“You mean sitting in the dark isn’t my birthday present?” Eli clasped my hand and led me out of the car carefully. He pulled me to him and with the blindfold on, all my other senses were heightened. He clutched me near him, my back against his muscular chest. He smelled exactly like he always did; uniquely Eli, a hint of leather and fresh linen from his shirts, plus a musky smell I could never place but was always divine. I could have stayed like that forever, held by Eli, just smelling him.
Eli gently spun me around so our chests were pressed together.
“You’re beautiful, you know that?” I never felt beautiful, but when he spoke, I believed him.
Eli pressed his lips to mine and, even blindfolded, my body knew what to do. I wrapped my arms around his neck and leaned into deepen the kiss. Eli had this way of kissing me that made my legs turn to butter, but he also had this way of sensing it. Just as my legs started to melt, he wrapped his arms around my waist and kept me pulled tight to him.
Slowly, Eli pulled back and his lips left a tingling sensation that would remain a ghost of our love.
Eli took off the blindfold. As quickly as the dark had been my home, sunlight invaded my senses. I was so stunned that all the breath left my body. If I could have gasped, though, I would have. It was simply divine.
“Eli, it’s perfect.”
The meadow was filled with flowers. Poppies of multiple colors saturated my eyesight. Reds, yellows, whites, purples, and pinks covered the field so densely that you couldn’t see the floor. It appeared as if the flowers were the floor.
Not long ago, Eli and I had watched The Wizard of Oz together. It had been playing at the theater (our theater only played movies that were at least thirty years old). The scene where they all skipped through the flower field together stuck with me. It was so carefree and beautiful.
Our town was a mess of dried up grass and dirt. The only flowers you found were fake ones.
“I can’t believe you! How’d you find it?” I wrapped my arms around Eli, planting kisses all over his face. Eli laughed, pulling me off him so he could answer.
“It actually wasn’t that hard. I just drove to the next town, you know the one with the library? And I searched on the internet.”
I shook my head, stunned. That was an awful lot of work. Gas was expensive and the closest town with a library was
at least forty minutes away. I jumped at Eli, giving him another bear hug.
“This isn’t your only present, Bug.”
“It’s not?” What else could he have gotten me?