One More Time

“And all of this food? Wonderful. Where did you get it from?”

“There’s a place up the road called Coffeehouse Central. I got it from there.”

“I’ll have to remember that place,” she said.

“It could be our secret hideaway.”

I felt Chanel’s eyes on me as I picked up my sandwich.

“I like that idea,” she said.

“I’m glad. Because it’s been labeled now, so you didn’t have a choice.”

“Oh, I always have choices.”

“You do. Like where I’m going to lick you next. You have the couch, the shower, and the floor in my bedroom.”

Chanel threw her head back and laughed, a glorious sound that filled the small area of my kitchen as the two of us ate breakfast together.

“Can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything, Chanel.”

“Do you know what you want to do with your life?” she asked.

“You’re gonna laugh at me if I tell you,” I said.

“Try me. Come on. What do you want to do?”

“At this point in my life, I’ve never felt this free. High school’s behind me, and I did my stint with the military to help me sort of get my life together. But the only time in the past ten years I was really happy was out on the water, on that cruise, in the ocean.”

“Really?” she asked. “That’s the only time?”

“I mean, unless I was thinking about you.”

“I wasn’t fishing for a compliment,” she said. “You mean to tell me you’ve been unhappy with your life all this time?”

“Not unhappy with it, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. The military was a means to an end, but it wasn’t my career. It wasn’t my passion. But being in that water, out on the ocean and around people. That was invigorating.”

“So, what did you take from that?” Chanel asked.

“I was thinking of opening up a surfing school.”

I saw Chanel pause as she cocked her head off to the side.

“You surf?” she asked.

“I do. Have for years now.”

“You surf. I never would have guessed that.”

“Well I do,” I said.

“I don’t remember you surfing in high school.”

“I didn’t. One of my SEAL buddies turned me on to it when we vacationed in Hawaii one time.”

“You weren’t happy in Hawaii? Really?” she asked.