You decide to head to the lake...

You throw on a pair of shorts and pull a shirt over your head. Simple enough for a midnight rendezvous. The mystery woman was right, the lake isn't very far from where you live so it should only take you a couple of minutes to get to the meeting place... You're not really supposed to swim out there... but it isn't often you get a call like this so you've decided to take the risk. Just as you start to wonder who you're meeting, you arrive. You quickly shut off your car and get out.

You notice the sound of cicadas... the frogs... the occasional night bird. Immediately, you feel relaxed by the symphony of nature... the enveloping darkness... the mystery of it all. It's too dark to see much. The moon is out, but there are enough clouds in the sky that the light isn't super bright. As you walk into the night, you feel relaxed... and yet anxious. Or perhaps you do not actually feel anxious... but anticipatory. Your shoes cause the turf to crunch as you walk. That sound creates a rhythm that punctuates and accents the sounds of nature.

As you get closer to the water line, you hear soft splashing in the water. You start to notice the occasional note of a song being sung. You aren't quite sure what it is... or even if it is a real tune. Even thought this is a lake, your mind goes to tales of sailors being enchanted by mermaids. A thin smile breaks your face as you reach the edge of the lake.

"Hey there..." you call out.

"Oh HI!" a woman's voice replies. You think it's the same one. She sounds similar enough at least. "Come in the water! It's amazing and warm tonight!"

Oh shit... you realize that you didn't put on swim wear. "Uh... bit of a snag there... I was in such a hurry to not keep you waiting any longer, that I completely spaced on wearing anything worth swimming in..."

You hear almost musical laughter. The sounds in the water seem a little closer, "that's fine... I'm not actually wearing a suit either..."

You think you make out a lump of folded clothing on the ground near a tree. "Ah... alright..." You strip off and place your clothing neatly next to the others, and then you hear a wolf whistle from the water. Again, your mind focuses on those sea stories about fish women bewitching men. You chuckle appreciatively and walk into the water. You swim out to where you can see your new friend treading water "I suppose I should thank you for that..."

"Oh no... I would like to thank you for the view. I imagine it's still too dark for you to notice much of me yet..."

"Well... I didn't want to admit that yet... but... well... I keep thinking about mermaids."

"Oh but brave sailor... I would never dream or luring you to ****. I would bring you to my kingdom and ease your sick for home..." she says with mock bashfulness and more of that musical laughter.

She swims closer to you and you think you can see some of the features of her face now. Is she someone you've met before? You're unsure... but you have a niggling feeling that you should remember. "I don't want to come off as rude... but... where have I met you before?"

"There it is..." you feel her hand brush against your chest in the water. "I thought you might not remember me... that's okay... we haven't seen each other much since..."

Something clicks in your mind... "Grade school..." you both say together.

"So you do remember me now?"

"No... I'm still not totally sure..."

"Well... to be fair... it was with a similar amount of darkness the last time you saw me..."

"Wait... the kissing closet? No... that meant you're... Andy?"

She laughs again, "Yes! It's me... Andrea Salt..."

"You moved away so long ago... it's been... what... twelve years now..."

Your eyes are a little more adjusted to the darkness now. You notice her hair is short. You think it's red, or at least you remember her hair being that shade of not quite orange that can only be called ginger. She is smiling now.

"Yes. It's been that long."

You and Andrea had been to a party as kids where the inevitable game of spin the bottle and seven minutes of heaven were played. While she had not been your first kiss, she was the first to introduce you to the french style. Not long after the party, she had moved away. Her father was a colonel in the military and travel was a part of life.

"So... god... how have you been?"

"Let's go sit on that for a bit and talk..." she says and swims for the floating dock. You join her and soon you're both dripping water onto the deck. The night air is warm enough that you don't need to worry about getting too chilly... or so you imagine.

"So... again?"

"Well... I don't want to bore you too much with details... so short version... I got in touch with Sara and we got to reminiscing about old times... and well... here I am..."

You laugh. "Wow... that's it? C'mon Andy... I need more than that. I know it wasn't exactly your choice... but you left... and you didn't return any contact..."

You see her shoulders slump in the moonlight... her voice gets a bit of a quiver in it, "I'm sorry... I wasn't allowed to. You know how my daddy was. He was so strict, he wouldn't let me talk to anyone from the party... especially not a boy he caught me kissing..."

"Oh... I'm sorry... I didn't know he was that strict. I didn't realize he was mad... so wait... did you move because of that?"

You see her nod. She sniffs a bit, you think she may be crying a bit. You reach out and put your arm around her. She leans in and then the tears really start to flow. She sobs into your chest and wraps her own arms around you like a life preserver. Your caress her head and back to help console her as she lets out more than a decade of emotion. You feel a bit of anger welling up in you at her father for making her feel this level of emotional distress.

"I'm sorry... I'm glad that it's dark so you don't see me ugly crying..."

"It's alright. I'm just happy to see you again. I missed you so much, and you never responded to anything I tried to send you. I thought you'd given up on our friendship. Now I know better."

"Yeah... Even now, I'm only here on leave."

"Leave? Oh... you joined up?"

"Yeah. I kind of had to because of the General. But it's okay. I have a good MOS. I'd like to get out when my current tour is up... but daddy doesn't want his girl to get out before she's finished her career..." she says with a bit of indignation.

"So wait... your dad moved you across country, join the military and now you've used your time off to come here? Is he allowing you to go to the wedding or something?"

She nods. "I was really kind of hoping I might get the chance to reconnect with you also... I actually..." she trails off. In the darkness, you see her look into your eyes, and then almost sheepishly, she looks away.

"What's wrong?"

She shakes her head and you think she's starting to cry again. You grab her and hold her close and let the tears flow. You try to let her feel nothing but love from you as you gently stroke her hair and softly say, "It's alright... It's okay... You can tell me anything..."

"You must think me an emotional wreck."

"Only in an understandable way. You're dealing with a lot I'm sure."

"I... was hoping... well... could I come back to your place and talk?"

"Sure..." you say and you stand up. You help her to her feet and both of you get your clothes from by the tree. After you're in your car, you get a better look at her in the light. She's just a beautiful as you remember... even with her eyes a little swollen and her face puffy and red from all the crying she's just done. Her hair is cut short and now that it's drying you can tell it's naturally spiky. A pair of warm hazel eyes stare back at you. You remember those soft lips and lean in close to her. She accepts the kiss. Her lips pressed against yours brings you back to the night of the party. Your seven minutes with an angel as all you could do with her at the time was make out. This woman truly taught you to kiss, and every one after her had never had any notes.

You make the short drive back to your home and soon you find yourself on your couch, with the girl who quite literally got away. Cups of coffee sit on the table in front of you.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?"

She drags in a deep breath. "I'm sorry... it's silly... I should probably forget about it..."

"No... really... tell me..."

"I think I might be able to get out of the military..." she pauses and chews on her lower lip for a minute before finally blurting out... "if I'm pregnant..."

"Oh... is that all?" a derpy grin on your face. "In case you didn't know... I had a huge crush on you when we were kids..."

"Sorry... forget I said anything... forget about it... forget..." she starts to stammer out until she realizes what you just said. "Oh..." is all she can manage for a moment.

"Did you think I would run for the hills screaming if a beautiful girl said something like that to me?"

"Well... yeah... there's lots of guys who wouldn't want to take that kind of a step... especially with a girl they weren't in a relationship with..."

"Yeah... well, most of those guys probably don't love the girls who might ask them.

"I guess that's true... wait... did you just say you loved me?" she says in disbelief.

"Well... I probably shouldn't go that far... but I do have extremely strong feelings for you and have had since we were young..."

She leans against you and lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank you... I feel the same way... or I wouldn't have come up with something like this... I would've been too mortified to ask anyone else anything like this..."

"Well... technically... you haven't actually asked me anything yet... I just inferred from context..."

"Oh... I suppose you're right. Would it be too much to ask you to be the father of my child?"

"That is a big step. I'm not opposed to it... but I wouldn't want to put you through something like that if you weren't sure it was what you wanted."

"Believe me... I have thought it through... I used to dream about us being together... having children..." she says a bit sheepishly.

With warmth in your eyes you agree, "Me too..." and you wrap your arms around her to hold her close.

The two of you spend the next hour or so making out before you move to your bedroom.