Falling Into You

Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off

I was never really a morning person, but I couldn't wait to open my eyes and see her laying next to me. I knew she'd still be sleeping. Jet lag and exhaustion would have gotten the best of her over the past twenty four hours. As I looked at her bathed in the soft morning light, I couldn't help but feel complete. She did that to me. She made me whole when I would otherwise fall to pieces. My life wasn't terrible and it certainly wasn't complicated, but over the years I found that when she was away something was missing. It was her. She was a part of me that I would never be able to live without. I had always been comfortable with the status of our relationship. I knew her better than anyone.

We had a lot of history between the two of us. Some of it was very intimate and private. Neither of us had ever told anyone about what had happened that summer in Puerto Rico. It changed things between us permantly. It wasn't a bad thing but it was a little bit of a complicated thing. I fell in love with the sixteen year old girl and I was still in love with the twenty seven year old woman. It wasn't like I was crippled by my feelings. I didn't have a rain cloud constantly dumping emotions on me. It wasn't like I was miserable and condemned to be forever alone. It really wasn't that dramatic at all. It was simple. She was love. Being in love with her didn't make me a mess, it made me the best version of myself that I could possibly be. It didn't matter to me that she didn't love me the same way I loved her, well if she did I wasn't aware of it. What mattered was that she gave me a feeling that was completely indescribable. She inspired me in the best kind of way. She gave my life color.

I reluctantly got out out of bed and got ready for my morning run. Before I left, I placed a soft kiss on her forehead and I made my way outside and found Joe stretching. He looked completely disheveled and unshaven.

"Are you homeless?" I asked with a smile

"You're ten minutes late." Joe playfully scolded.

"Sorry." I smiled. "I had an unexpected visitor."

"Oh?" He asked raising an eyebrow.

"Stop!" I sighed as I sat down and started stretching next to him.

"Whatever." He said rolling his eyes. "I'm ready to go." He added as he stood up and dusted off the back of his shorts.

"Gimme a couple more minutes." I said as I continued to stretch.

Once I finished, I stood and we started to jog toward the beach. Joe and I had a routine that we liked to stick to. It had been this way since we both graduated college. Joe and I had spent most of our adult life together. He was like a brother to me. I loved him tremendously and I would do anything for him. We spent that first year out of school traveling across the country in Volkswagen bus. That's actually how we met Taylor. We came across her waiting tables at a diner in Nashville and somehow she convinced us to let her travel with us. When we got to San Diego, we didn't want to leave. It didn't take us long to come up with a plan and get settled. We bought a house and a bar with whatever money we had leftover from college and we haven't looked back. Thankfully, our bar was one of the most popular hang out spots in the city. We called it JD's. The J stood for Joe and the D was for Demi. It wasn't the most groundbreaking name, but it worked. Taylor used it during the day as a restaurant. She made some of the best food around. Between the three of us, we were quite successful.

Halfway through our run we picked up the pace a bit. I could hear Joe's heavy footfalls next to me. He sounded slightly out of breath. I laughed and gave him a quick glance. He scowled at me and we continued our run. We ran five miles everyday. Running allowed me to clear my head and just relax. I didn't have to worry about anything other than placing one foot in front of the other as I controlled my breathing. It didn't take long for us to reach the halfway point. Instead of turning around Joe collapsed in the sand and laid on his back.