Kisses and Other Necessities

《 kisses and babies 》

If Flora Morgan's life were a movie, this would be the part where she fired the screenwriter.

An email? A freaking email?

Everyone knows emails get deleted and letters get sent to the wrong address. If Sean wanted to go down the romantic cliché route, he should just stick his letter inside a bottle and throw it into the ocean. Or rather, he could write about his undying love on the pages of a Gabriel García Márquez book, sell it to a used bookstore while he was at it, and leave the rest to serendipity. Perhaps Flora would chance upon it right before she got married to the wrong guy.

He was so adorably stupid she just wanted to kiss him and yell at him and kiss him some more.

The only way to leave no room for another near miss was to sort this out in person, so Flora opted the Flora Morgan way out and hopped on the first train straight from downtown Manhattan to Boston.

Sean sounded pleasantly surprised to hear from her. He suggested dinner, so she wondered from South Station, took the Red Line to MIT, strolled past Google Cambridge and breathed in the smart people air around her as she waited for nightfall. She liked the surroundings; this was different from NYC but it reminded her of Sean.

She sat down at the restaurant first and ordered herself a drink. She didn't have too much time to contemplate how she wanted to approach him before the door opened.

Sean showed up in a simple V-neck tee, Nike sneakers, and a faded pair of jeans that hugged him so well it was downright provoking. He stopped at the reception desk and Flora took this opportunity to check out his butt.

There are two kinds of reaction when facing an ex; "what the hell was I thinking?" versus "what the hell was I thinking when I broke up with him?" It was pretty easy to decide which category Sean Foster belonged to. He looked up, and the edge of his eyes crinkled up when he saw her from across the room. She felt a sense of shyness just like the old times.

He sat down and at first he just smiled at her. "What brings you here?" he said finally, after staring at her for what seemed like a few seconds too long. "It's been a while."

"You," she said. "I'm here to see you."

Sean smiled again, looking a little shy too, like he just found out he was paired with his crush for class. "I've missed you," he said. "Ever since you started your job as assistant editor, you've been really busy."

"Yeah, you know how it is. It's entirely different from being a part time intern. I like that feeling, though, to have a short term goal, which is to get the hang of this job asap. I can sprint towards that with all my energy."

Life had been hectic ever since college graduation and her contact with Sean was mostly constituted of short texts. She had a job to focus on, a new apartment in Tribeca which she shared with two other girls, Elizabeth and Carrie, and an old flame (who sat across from her now) she kept buried in the back of her mind.

That old flame exploded into fire and burned down any last shred of hesitancy when Luke told her about the email. There had always been something between Sean and her, but they'd been putting it off and getting on with their respective lives. She was tired of ignoring it. All she needed was a push, and like lifting a heavy rug, she was ready to face what was lurking underneath.

"Speaking of which," Sean said, "ever since you got your job, I've subscribed faithfully to Esquire."

"Really?" She pretended to scrutinize over his outfit. "You don't look like you learned anything from it."

Sean wasn't like the metrosexual image in the magazine; he was still laid-back and boyish, drinking his Heineken and looking incredibly comfortable with himself. She wouldn't have it any other way.