I was a bit down...

So I was a bit quiet that day at work.

She noticed it within a second of seeing my face. She enquired what was wrong and I said that it wasn't important. "It is important Ross, something is getting to you. Can I help?" She said.
"I doubt it." I replied as I took a can of juice out of the fridge and took a drink.

She moved towards me, with a small smile that was full of kindness and warmth, and gave me a hug. "I'm sorry you don't feel good Ross, it's not nice seeing you like this." She said, Her head laying upon my chest. I wrapped my arms around Her small frame and rested my head onto her raven black hair. I noticed that She smelled of apples and peaches and my heart beat sped up.

"I can hear your heart beating." She said, still holding me around the waist. My heart skipped a beat and she commented on it. I looked down into her beautiful eyes and she looked up into mine. "You're a really nice guy Ross please cheer up. It makes me sad seeing you like this." She remarked.

"Don't be sad. It'll pass. I just get a bit down once in a while." I said as Her hands ran slowly up and down my back. I figured it was the mothering instinct but could see in Her eyes it was more than that. Or I thought so anyway. I kissed her on the forehead and immediately she drew back and ended our hug. "Shit, I'm sorry. I... I... Oh fuck it." I stammered and turned away to get the hell out of there so I didn't have to explain why I had just kissed her.

"Don't go." She said. I stopped and began to try to explain to her why I had Crossed The Line. "And Don't say anything either." She continued. "Just come here and kiss me properly." I looked outside the kiosk and saw early visitors to the Zoo wandering past. "Ross, there are times in life when you shouldn't worry about who's watching. This is one of them. Now come here and kiss me." She said.

A thought passed through my mind. "Why would someone as beautiful as She is want to kiss me?" It asked. She smiled at me again as She stepped towards me and spoke. "Kiss me now and stop thinking about the whys and wherefores... Seize the moment." She said as She once more wrapped Her petite arms around me and pulled me close.

I stared into Her deep brown eyes that had flecks of grey through them and kissed her. Her hands slid down my back and Her thumbs hooked into my jeans. Her tongue slipped into my mouth and I felt my blood rushing in my ears.

I could feel my self melting away to be replaced by a warm sense of belonging. This, I knew, was where I wanted to be. I wanted to wake up next to this woman everyday, I wanted to hold her close and tight as we lay next to each other, I wanted this woman to be the Mother to my Children and I wanted us to grow old together. She gave a low soft moan as I ran my hands down her back and onto her hips.

She broke away from me and looked into my eyes. "Feel better?" She enquired, with a small, lopsided, grin that spoke volumes. I smiled like the Cheshire Cat as our bodies parted slowly. My hand ran all the way along her arm and I felt every single hair on Her was standing on end. "I'm good now, but I have to ask what that was all about." I said.

"I'm not sure myself Ross, I just wanted to make you smile and take away whatever you're hurting from." She said with a look of confusion on her face. "It just felt like the right thing to do." She continued.

"You could have just told me a joke." I said, trying to lighten the mood a bit. She giggled and told me to go and do some work and that She'd see me later. "Fancy a drink after work?" I enquired.
"That'd be nice. I'm off at six." She said as I pulled open the door to the kiosk.
"I'll meet you in The Struan then." I said.
"Can we go somewhere else? The Struan will be full of people from here. And I want you all to myself." She said.
"Sure, I'll meet you at the bottom of the hill just after six and we can go somewhere else." I Said as I pulled the door closed.

I walked to the van that I had parked outside the kiosk and she leaned out of the serving hatch. "I'm missing you already." She said as I got into the van and started the engine. "Even though I'm not quite sure why." She continued. I smiled to her, winked my eye and pulled away slowly.

For the rest of the day whenever I drove around the Zoo, taking messages and doing what it was I was being paid to do, I'd try to make sure I passed Her kiosk and gave Her a wave each time. She always waved back or leaned out of the window and made a smart remark. A couple of times when there was no-one waiting at the kiosk to be served I'd pull the van right up to the window so we could chat for a couple of minutes until a customer wanted to be served.

At four o'clock I finished my shift and I headed home to have a shower and get changed. As I walked along the old railway line towards my home the birdsong resounded in my ears, interrupted only by the occasional shout of "Fore!" from the golf course that ran adjacent to the abandoned railway line.

After showering and getting changed into clean clothes I left the house and walked began the mile or so walk back to work.

I arrived at the bottom of the Zoo hill and leaned on the wall at the side of the gate. People who I worked beside stopped to talk to me and almost without exception they all enquired who I was waiting for. I ignored their questions, as I didn't want them making remarks during lunch break, and they eventually gave up and drifted over the road towards The Struan.

Just when I thought that I had been stood up, and had decided to go over to The Struan and have a drink or ten with everyone who had made their way across the road, She appeared and hooked her arm around me. "Hi." She said. "Let's get out of here. I've had enough of this place for one day." She continued.

I took her hand into mine and hailed a passing taxi. The taxi pulled to the curb and we got in. As the taxi pulled away She leaned into me and let out a small yawn. "Tired?" I asked after I had told the driver where to go. "Just a bit." She said, snuggling into me, closing her eyes and sighing contentedly.

As the taxi weaved its way through Edinburgh I looked down at the beautiful woman snoozing gently in my arms and I was filled with the desire to be with this woman until the sun died and the universe turned cold. I listened to her slow deep breathing and watched her perfectly formed chest rise and fall with Her breaths.

The taxi arrived at our destination and I gently whispered into Her ear that we were here. She stirred gently and looked up into my eyes. "I'm sorry." She said as we stepped out of the taxi. She was apologising for falling asleep in my lap. "Don't be, that was the nicest thing that has ever happened to me. I had a beautiful woman sleeping in my arms." I said and she blushed slightly.

"Where are we?" She asked, looking around at the surroundings.
"We're at Crammond." I said, as we made our way along the pathway that skirted the beach. "It's at the mouth of the Water of Leith. This is the Firth of Forth. The Forth bridge is a few miles that way and a few hundred miles that way is Denmark." I said, pointing up and down the body of water that stretched out before us.
"It's beautiful." She said.

I held her hand as we sat on a bench and watched the sun begin to set behind the hills of Fife. We talked about our childhoods, our hopes, our dreams and speculated on our futures. "I'd like to grow old with someone I love more than anything else." She said.
"Anywhere in particular?" I questioned.
"Not really. But somewhere that I can watch the sunset without the drone of traffic disturbing it would be nice." She answered.
"You should see Pirnmill." I said remembering the beauty of the place I had visited many years previously with my family. "It's a small village on the Isle of Arran that looks over the water towards the Mull of Kintyre. The sunsets are amazing there." I continued.

"That's the place that Paul McCartney sung about isn't it?" She asked.
"Yup." I answered.
"I can't stand that song." She said.
"It's certainly a good argument for Paul McCartney getting back into heavy drug use. I'd much rather Paul McCartney wrote songs like Eleanor Rigby and Blackbird than pumping out shit like that and The Frog Chorus." I said.
"I love that song." She said as she huddled into me to keep warm.
"What song?" I asked.
"The Frog Chorus. It's great... Boom boom boom, ba ee ya, boom boom boom, ba ee ya." She said as she began singing the hook to The Frog Chorus.
"Holy fuck, I'm in love with a madwoman!" I said.

She began laughing at having tricked me into thinking that she liked The Frog Chorus but stopped suddenly.

"Did you just say you're in love with me?" She asked. She sat up from hugging into my side and looked at me. I sensed that I had fucked up and tried to talk my way out of the hole I had dug.
"I said I loved you but I meant it in the sense of friends." I said.
"No, you didn't, you said, and I quote: "I'm in love with a madwoman""
"You got me there." I said. "I did say that but I meant it as a joke. I couldn't possibly love you, you like The Frog Chorus." I continued, hoping that she would let it drop and not spoil the nice time we were having just being with each other.
"That's a shame." She said after a few minutes of silence.
"Why?" I enquired.
"Because being loved by you sounds like a great way to live." She said.

She drew me close to Her and gave me a small kiss on the cheek. "You're a really nice guy Ross... Things are complicated at the moment. I enjoy your company but there are things you don't know about me... I'm in a strange place in my life just now... I'm... I'm... I don't know what I am..." She said.

I put my finger to Her lips and quietened her. "Shhh." I said and pulled Her close to me. I kissed Her and She responded by hugging me close and running Her fingers across my back. I ran my fingers through her Hair and closed my eyes. The sun set behind the hills of Fife but in my mind I could see the sun burning bright thousands of miles away in the early evening light.

We left Crammond and headed back to the main road so we could jump in a taxi and I could make sure She got home alright. In the Taxi on the way to Her house she once more cuddled into me and closed her eyes. We arrived in Her street and I shook Her gently to wake Her from her nap. "You're home." I said.

"I'd ask you to come up but I don't think it'd be a good idea." She said. "My flatmate might have something to say about me bringing you home with me." She continued.
"It's OK, I'll see you tomorrow at work." I said and leaned in to give Her a small kiss goodbye.
She pulled back from me and I felt that She wasn't able to kiss me goodbye. I let it go, She got out of the taxi and I watched Her walk towards the entrance to Her stair.

As She turned to close the door to Her stairway She looked at me in the back of the taxi, blew me a kiss and mouthed "See you tomorrow." I told the taxi driver my home address and sat in a daze all the way there.

I'd met; Her; She; The One.