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Terminals.
A young man paces the airport terminal. Both excited and nervous he awaited a girl he'd never met. They talked and flirted, they left a lot unsaid, but this was the first physical meeting. It was a real gamble, the physical is where actual chemistry occurs and makes or breaks even the most star-crossed lover's plans. He checks the arrival times over and over again, even though it's said 'on-time' constantly. He smiles and nods to the deluge of passer-by's, a young woman runs to her family ecstatic about her trip to California, an elderly couple embrace as his wife leaves to see her son in Texas.
The young man finds a seat near the exit doors, knowing her flight was the next to be released. He watches as countless faces find their counter-parts or the airport bar. As the flood of people diminishes the moment he has been waiting for arrives and there she is walking with a shy smile.
There is a short, awkward walk and a hug with a curt smile-filled 'Hello'
Poets, musicians, authors; they can all write about romance and love. They can wax romantic about the moon or slow motion, the taste of a kiss or the passion of sex. What they miss, and what the young man knew was that in that short, awkward walk that ended with a hug and a smiled 'Hello' a piece of him was her's forever.
Years later. Smiles, fights, break-ups, make-ups, life, and desertion later. The young man lays in his bed and that piece of him is still pacing in that airport terminal, waiting.
