Motorcycle to swing set

"Um... I've never ridden on the back of a motorcycle before." Andrea* Said. "Well, then you are in for a treat. I brought you a helmet." I replied. "I think I need to go ask my Dad, he hates these things." responded Andrea*. I furrowed my brow, even though I don't have much of a furrow, and my eyebrows just drop, and I asked, "I forgot? How old are you again?" She smacked me across the chest playfully and grinned, "Stop it." She looked at the bike, I could see her thinking intently. I didn't say anything, I just let her figure it out in her head. She smiled and said, "I have wanted to do this forever... You're a good driver right?" "The very best in the world." I responded with a grin. She said, "Okay, help me put this thing on."

Andrea* climbed on to the back of the bike and I started it up. In truth, my bike looks really nice, but it is older then I am by about 7 years. After starting it I have to rev it a few times or it will die. It wasn't as loud as a Harley or anything, but with the rusted out hole in the bottom of my left exhaust pipe it was loud enough. I hoped her Dad heard it, I positioned my mirror so that I could see her front door behind us. I briefly explained to her to lean if I do. I hoped that as I drove away I would see her dad running out of the front door shaking his fist at us. We took off, and I watched, but nothing stirred at her house. I felt kind of guilty for being disappointed.

We rode into Salt Lake for the twilight concert that they do every Thursday night. We grabbed some Thai food at one of the booths and I brought a little blanket in my backpack for us to sit on. We found nice spot to sit where we could hear the music, but could still talk without shouting. I love talking to Andrea*. We "people watched" which is very easy to do at these concerts, first of all there are TONS of people, in most of the Gallivan Plaza there is standing room only. Secondly there is a wide range of people and families that come out. It made fun conversation easy.

After the concert we walked through Temple square to get to our parking spot. I usually try to avoid Temple Square on dates because it is so cliche and cheesy. I justified this, because we were not going to Temple Square, we were just walking through. Andrea grabbed my hand. I'm not sure if it was the temple ambiance or just my perfectly planned date, but that's the first time we've held hands while walking. I realized I was smiling like a retard, and we didn't say anything for a few minutes, it was awkward, but it was awesomely awkward.

Right as we got out of Temple square these 5 tatooed gauged eared ruffians started harassing us. Saying stuff like, "Awe, look a couple of Mormons, you guys gonna get married in that temple?" and "What is this you're first date? You gonna get married next week? Which wife will you be?" I usually welcome this kind of pressure, because I am pretty good at retorting appropriately. I got into a lot of fights in high school, and not one of these guys was bigger then me. I froze up though, we had a little back and forth, but I didn't have any good combacks and they were the obvious winners. The whole scenario ended with them running off, laughing and pointing. Andrea* didn't care, in fact she commented that she appreciated my restraint.

We went and grabbed some ice cream and went for a walk in a nearby park that I had never been in. We talked about Temple marriage... not about it together, but just about it, and how it was important to both of us. I shared some mission stories, and we kind of shared our testimonies. I thought to myself, "Now I have ruined our chance at an intimate ending to this date by spiritual-ing it all up."

We had finished our Ice Cream and found a playground. We were sitting on the swings. Swinging and spinning and talking. But mostly talking. In the lights of the park she looked beautiful. I realized I was starring and hadn't said anything for a minute. I reached out and grabbed the chain of her swing which she was swinging on. It wobbled a lot and she said, "What the..." When she looked at me I think she knew. I pulled her swing to mine and with my other hand grabbed the small of her back applying a small amount of pressure towards me. I leaned in and...

Yes. We kissed! It started out soft and sweet and slow, as it should. There was no tongue, or at least I made a special effort to avoid using tongue, which was pretty cool because it made even the slightest graze of either of our tongues that much more titillating. Her hands both came up along the back of my neck and things started getting a little bit more, um, passionate ((can I interject here and say that this post is sounding really femy and lame, and I don't usually talk like this or tell stories this way, but therein lies the reason for this blog... I think - we'll see if Calvin throws me a verbal lashing for it later. Where was I? Oh, right... passionate...)) Our kiss, which to this point had lasted all of 40 seconds started getting deeper and more vigorous. Still no tongue. My hand that was holding the chains together instinctively went for her neck... without me realizing that the swings would then swing apart. We were torn away from each other! I tried to catch the chain but just ended up swatting for air. We both laughed.

Andrea* got out of her swing and walked off a little. She turned, put her arms down to her side, clenched her fists and made a quiet "ooooh" sound as she kind of shook her head fast like someone had just run a cube of ice up her bare spine. Her hands went up to her face. She looked at me through her fingers and smiled. I stood up and said, "What?" as I was seriously confused about her reaction. She smiled bigger, and then just came at me, fast! She pushed me against the frame of the swing and we kissed some more. It was so great! We kissed for another 5 minutes - still no tongue - and then she stopped and looked at me and said, "Mmm, time to go home." She kissed me once more quickly and then started walking back to the bike.

Stunned, I leaned against that pole and marvelled at how fun albeit brief that was. I thought a little bit about what her abrupt ending and interesting reactions where all about? As I watched her walk away I realized she was looking really good, and that she had kissed me, and she obviously really liked me, and that I wasting this terrific moment analyzing things and thinking, and how stupid that was that I was doing that. I chased after her...

Jake

* - Even though I attempted to change Amanda's name to "Andrea" in previous posts, I mistakenly used Amanda's real name in this post. I've gone back through and changed her name to "Andrea" to help with the confusion. If you know an Amanda and think this may be a story about her, please don't tell her. Please.