Teach Me How To Kiss

Janet the Sitter

We pulled up to the North Point Apartments on Stockton Street and began unloading some of the luggage while Janet stayed in the car; to avoid parking elsewhere. It was a bit overwhelming, moving into this big complex, but once we established where my apartment number was everything settled in to place. I stayed in 17b, while Terri traveled back and forth with the rest of our stuff. Looking around my very own studio and admiring the cozy size with the small kitchen, den and bedroom; it was the right size for me…and Janet temporarily.

Although the couch didn't look miserably uncomfortable for sleeping, I had no problem sharing my full bed with Janet; we were tiny enough. As I stood in the balcony, my gaze remain fixed outside on the pool and grassy patch. I had no trouble growing fond of this place.

The trees and benches looked so peaceful, even my inner most thoughts surfaced to take a peek. I hadn't told Terri about my unexpected phone call from Aaron. Although I was confident about my feelings for Terri, I was afraid that if I merely mentioned the call it would be followed by a sum of questions I didn't want to answer right away. I honestly didn't want to even think about it. I was forcing myself to forget and continue as though it had never happened.

We decided to get a bite to eat down Bay Street before hitting the supermarketfor some groceries. Spotting a quaint Italian restaurant, we scarfed down on some fine bread and pasta; full enough to last us the rest of the afternoon. Unfortunately Terri was only able to stay with us that night as he had to go back to camp; he was notified of another training program. Even though I was looking forward to some sightseeing with him, I understood…the military life was quite unpredictable. And Terri got away with a lot for the many times he escaped to visit me. Still I knew it would probably be a month or more till I would see him again.

The next days consisted of Janet and I driving around like tourists; we saw the famous Golden Gate Bridge and snapped phone pics of ourselves in front of it. We then strolled by the piers before driving down the Embarcadero; the road I'd have to take to get to the culinary school. I swung by to pick up my baking tools and uniform; white coat and cap. Everything was sinking in.

.

I made it to my class 15 minutes early, eager to meet our Chef instructor and start baking. There were already a dozen students, including this auburn haired girl that sat beside me. She looked a couple of years older. Once the Chef came in and gave us our handouts to review the sanitary and safety regulations we were soon introduced to our tools and speech of cooking terminology. The Chef, Enrico, was a funny Italian guy. I knew this would be a great class; and with that our first assignment was on cutting and proper measurements.

Too distracted to make any conversation, still throughout the course of the class the auburn haired girl and I buddied up. Her name was Amy and we decided to go to the Starbucks on the corner of the street for our lunch break. We left our white coats and things back in the classroom and without hesitation we began chit chatting right away.

"So Amy are you from here?" I began.

"I am. I've been living here for 5 years; originally from San Diego. How about you?"

"I'm originally from Seattle. I moved to California with my mom about 3 years ago."

"Nice, so is it just the two of you here?" She asked as we walked in the shop and straight for the line.

"Oh no, I actually moved here to San Francisco last week with my friend Janet." I could tell I was only confusing her.

"Is she going to college here too?" She spoke very slowly trying to understand.

"No she's… kind of taking a break. In fact she's actually looking for a job to keep her busy."

"Nice, anything in particular?"