He took his time walking up to her. Nobody understood the emotions and memories she stirred in him when he had seen her at the game. So many questions have been going through his mind in the last forty-eight hours, he wasn’t sure himself what he was doing. He just knew he was doing it.

            Thomas eased his way around the picnic table and hopped up next to Jen. She didn’t move, didn’t look his way, didn’t even speak, she just sat there holding a box in her lap. He noticed a faint hint of smoke rising from the nearby barbeque pit. He turned where he could see her fully, putting one leg on the table top, with the opposite foot resting on the bench seat.

            Taking a breath, he whispered, “Jen.”

            She looked at him then, her face caked with stains of fresh tears. Jen still didn’t speak. She just looked at him as though she were searching for something.

                        “Jen,” Thomas said again softly.

            Finally, Jen spoke.

                        “Why are you here, Thomas?” she asked.

            This time it was Thomas who was silent, but after a minute he finally decided to answer. It was time to be completely honest with her.

                        “I don’t know,” he told her.

            Jen shuffled slightly, repositioning herself to look at him better.

                        “What does that mean?” she asked.

                        “Just what it means,” he said. “I don’t know why I’m here.”

            Jen hopped down off the table then, leaving the box she had been holding on the table. Thomas was curious what was in the box, but when he looked at her again, he knew. She stood before him with her hands on her hips as though she was about to unleash on him. It was then, that he noticed the stone on the chain around her neck. There was no mistaking the heart shape turquois stone had originated in a certain silver band that once would have fit her finger.

            Thomas hopped off the table and closed the distance between them. It was time to have the conversation that was twenty years too late. Instinctively, he reached out and placed his hands on her arms just below her elbows. For a second, Thomas closed his eyes and allowed himself to remember how good it felt to touch her, to feel her. To his surprise, she didn’t pull away. Instead, she rested her hands lightly on his chest and looked up at him.

                        “Talk to me, Thomas,” she said. “There’s no one else here. It’s time to be completely honest and talk to me…like you used to.”

            With that, Thomas gave completely in and let out a breath as he put his arms completely around her, resting his forehead on hers, and looking into her eyes.

                        “I was scared, Jen,” he told her. “I wanted to marry you, I really did, but we were still so young and had so much ahead of us. I didn’t want to get to this point and wish we hadn’t married so young. I thought I was doing what was best for both of us and I was also selfishly chasing after my own dreams, but I didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.”

            Jen lifted her head toward him a little more.

                        “There was nothing wrong with any of that,” she said. “You were wrong by not sharing all this with me then, instead of choosing to be an ass and making me feel like I wasn’t good enough for you and your dreams. If you had just told me and been honest with me, I would have understood…eventually, because, yes it still would have hurt, but I would have come to understand why you made your choice. I deserved that much because I was willing to follow you anywhere if you had let me. I loved you. Even now, there is part of me that feels something for you. You were my first love, feelings like that don’t go away. They change over time, but they don’t go away.”

            Thomas was amazed at her response. That was the Jen he had known in college speaking. She hadn’t changed all that much over the years. Her feelings had always been raw and caring. He liked knowing that hadn’t changed about her.

                        “Are you sure Aaron wasn’t your first love?” he teased.

            The look on her face made him laugh.

                        “Good ole, Jen,” he said as he lowered his lips toward hers. “You never were good at hiding your thoughts from your face.”

            He kissed her then, softly, tasting her for the first time in twenty years. Thankfully, she received his kiss without hesitation and wrapped her arms around his neck, allowing the kiss to deepen.