Kissing in the Rain ☔ ✔

⛅️ 1

WARMTH SPREAD ACROSS Hayden's suntanned skin, radiating in every direction from everywhere his lips touched. From the tips of her shoulders to the sensitive spot at the base of her neck, her body sensuously soaked up the magical feeling the same way it had for the past two years voraciously absorbed the California sun.

"Mmm."

Hayden imagined the happiness in his blue eyes as he continued to kiss her, working his way down her shoulder blades at a leisurely pace so he could take in all the nuances of her body, like a passionate art observer admiring the finest of masterpieces. The tingly, almost-ticklish sensation his lips elicited across her skin travelled lower and lower until he reached the base of her back, where the waistline of her cotton sleep shorts prevented him from perusing any further.

The young girl smiled into her pillow, arching her back and leaning into his kisses as she slowly drifted back to consciousness.

"Good morning Baby."

Hayden stiffened, her muscles tensing. Something was... off. His voice didn't fit with the blue eyes she'd envisioned just seconds earlier. No, this voice was too high in pitch...

Hayden's smile faded as reality sank in and she realized she'd had another dream about him.

She blinked a couple of times, letting her eyes adjust to the California sun that penetrated both the blinds and the curtains. After almost three years in Berkeley, she still couldn't fathom her lack of investment in better curtains. Then again, better was normative. As a graduate student, she had had more than her fair share of early mornings, needing to rise early if she wanted to get done all the work she was expected— and usually failed, but that was the life of an overly ambitious student— to accomplish during the day ahead. So maybe her negligence in purchasing new curtains had been for the best as the strong sunlight streaming into her bedroom was a reliable wake-up call every morning. Even on weekends.

Hayden's smile returned when she remembered she didn't have to worry about any of that anymore, and that she could actually sleep in. She was done with school.

But being done came along with its own set of baggage, namely decisions about what to do next. And those decisions were not what she wanted to think about immediately upon waking, so she turned around to face her fellow recent-graduate and boyfriend instead, opting to pretend for just a moment that he wasn't one of those decisions.

Timothy's brown eyes were filled with anxious excitement, reminding her of his expression when he'd surprised her with tickets to watch his favourite Nippon League baseball team play in Japan. She'd been excited too, having never visited Japan but always having wanted to. On the flip side, she had felt bad accepting the airline ticket without being able to repay him. But he'd insisted it was non-refundable. Still, some day she hoped to repay him.

The prospect of going to Japan had excited her more than going with Timothy. Even though she'd known from day one it was his dream to watch a Hiroshima Toyo Carp game, she hadn't been as happy as she thought she would be while she sat next to him, watching as his dream came true. Even then she'd found it unsettling that seeing Timothy (her boyfriend!) so happy didn't make her happy and that all she could think about was how she'd rather be picnicking under cherry blossom trees or hiking up Mt. Fudekage. And he was so invested in the game that she realized she could have been doing either of those things and he wouldn't have noticed her absence.

That memory alone was sufficient evidence that Hayden didn't see herself dating Timothy after she left Berkeley. She just didn't know how to break the news. All she was certain of was that she didn't have much time left.

Her plane departed tomorrow night.

Hayden's eyes narrowed as they searched Timothy's, and she propped herself up, leaning on her left elbow. The action forced her boyfriend's arms to loosen from around her waist. "What's up?" she asked.