walking in a winter wonderland...sort of

 Saturday night…

“Are ya cold?” Chad asked while rubbing his leather gloves over my coat sleeves.

“A little bit,” I smiled.

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small Yeti thermos. “This will take the edge off. I made hot chocolate. Just in case,” he smirked and removed the lid.

I took one small drink, roughly swallowed, and replied laughing with a hoarse voice, “Jesus! Do you like a little bit of cocoa with your peppermint schnapps?!” Then I coughed a few times.

“Better?” He chuckled and took a big swig.

As we walked through the beautifully lit, dressed-up-for-Christmas, no snow to speak of local botanical gardens, he reached over and took my gloved hand in his claiming it was “cold”. We joked about how awful it must be to be the one maintenance guy whose job it is to find that one bulb that went bad out of millions. Most of our time was spent giggling about one thing or another.

When we got under a colorful light-filled canopy he leaned down, put both his palms on my cheeks and kissed me passionately on the lips. Let me tell you…when Chad kisses you, it’s a full on, no-holds-barred kiss that leaves you feeling punch-drunk and weak in the knees.

I hadn’t anticipated that kiss of his to affect me like it did. As he pulled back with a big smile, I was speechless and disoriented. I suddenly threw my arms around his neck and began to kiss him back. Slowly realizing what I was doing, I immediately stopped.

Maybe it was the schnapps, I thought.

Awkwardly, we continued with our walk.

“Red, do you want to talk about what just happened back there?” he chuckled as he asked.

“Nope. No, I really don’t.” I think embarrassment had gotten the better of me.