Two Girls and a Guy in Boulder
They say that when you least expect it, when you least think about it, that’s when suddenly a relationship knocks on your door. I had graduated from a small college about a year ago, had moved to Boulder, Colorado, was doing well at my first “real” job, was having a good time with my new friends, and was finally getting used to my mountainous environment, but then, out of the blue, I had to make a decision between two girls I liked.
Josie had moved to Boulder not long ago. She bartended at a bar, and I had a good time every time I visited her. I enjoyed watching her move from here to there, doing many things at once effortlessly: serving drinks, taking orders, sliding credit cards, chatting with customers, picking up empty glasses, put them in the washer and get new ones.
“You are like a fish in the water.” I’d tell her.
She’d wink at me and then go on with her business. It was only at the end of the night when we were able to have better conversations, usually about our impressions of town.
The other girl was Ana. She worked at one of those alternative supermarkets everybody around here goes to. If Josie moved about like a fish in the water, Ana moved as if she had the ability to teleport. It always surprised me how often I ran into her at different parts of the supermarket while shopping. We gradually started talking: she had moved to Boulder eons ago and was into this mysterious new age stuff that intrigued me. One day she asked me what I was doing Friday night.
That Friday we met at a coffee shop with shaky table tops and where some people she knew were playing. The music was unusual: long and winding electronic sounds that made me feel marooned in a strange planet. We started talking and I soon began to feel as if electricity was going to my head. Then it felt as if she was closer to me than she physically was. Other people’s chatter, music, cups clinking: all of it disappeared as I revealed rather intimate stuff about my life. Our conversation ended when a barista came and told us they were closing. Time had gone by very quickly, and I volunteered to drive her home.
“See you soon, hopefully.” She said as she stepped out of the car.
“I’ll give you a call,” I said and drove away.
I missed my turn on the way home; I had to do a U-turn three blocks down. We had talked about rather serious subjects, but I felt very stupid for missing my turn.
Once at my place, I realized that we had skipped dinner, and I prepared myself something to eat. It was the beginning of spring and ants had come to take my messiness off the sink for the first time this year. I‘ve always loved ants marching on my kitchen counter to retrieve crumbs or other food leftovers. They just go on minding their business without realizing that that all of them may die when I clean stuff up.
I went out with Josie, the bartender, two days later. We met at the video game arcades. We played a fighting video game all the way to the end. I could not believe a woman could pull up an uppercut in Street Fighter as fast as she did.
“You are good,” I said
“You are not bad yourself.”
Then we played air hockey and she had these pretty clever shots.
“You are pretty clever.”
“Yup.”
This place was a huge warehouse, and the lights from the video game and slot machines emanating made one feel like being inside a luminous city at night.
“We are lost in Tokyo,” I told her
“Can you find me?”
And she ran and I chased her up and down the rows of machines as if we were kids in an English garden. Then she ran outside and into the night and into the parking lot. And then she stopped and tiptoed on the yellow lines. I did too, and then I followed her to my car, where she reclined herself against (the car). I moved to kiss her and it was successful. I sensed the love seizing me. I love you and I want you, I thought.
We got into the car, and I drove her home. I did not feel the need to speak much and this was fine.
“Talk to you later” I said as she left me.
“Talk to you soon”
I really liked Josie, but I knew the stupidity of relying on one date, and I was still intrigued by Ana, so I decided to give Ana a call anyways. But it proved difficult, as if I did not really want to do it. I paced back and forth in my apartment until finally I dialed her number. Her voice over the phone was like a brush with silk, and I imagined her on the other side licking her paws. A date was set for breakfast.
The day of the date was a bright morning heralding a sunny day––it’s like this most of the time in Boulder even if it’s cold. I woke up hungry, but I had to wait because we had set the date at 10 a.m. If we had decided on an earlier time, we could have watched the skiers get breakfast before heading up to the mountains to catch the last days of snow.
One can’t see the mountains where people go skiing from here, but one can see the foothills leading up to them. They are green and red and have a very peculiar and well know characteristic, the flat irons, which are these gigantic rocks shaped like spears stuck in the earth. Their tops are like arrow heads that look like quartzes aiming at the sky. I saw these as I drove to the restaurant for my date with Ana.
Ana was already there when I arrived. She wore a necklace with a large and bluntly cut rock. We started talking about the weather, but soon our conversation turned just as it had done in our previous date, and she was telling me truths that felt like iron rods hitting me in the head. I was caught between trying to speak with commensurate transcendence and recuperating from what was said. I concentrated on her face, which I can’t describe except her intense blue eyes, which were scorching and mesmerizing, putting the rest of her face on a second plane.
After breakfast she suggested to go for a hike in the foothills. I breathed heavily as I hiked up. I turned to see how she was doing; she was unfazed and returned a smile that made me believe she was a mountain lion returning home. I looked at the forest ahead and did not know if I was moving to it, or it to me, but soon we were in it and under the shade of the pine trees.
“I am tired. I need some air.” I told her as I reclined against a tree.
Then she came over, lifted her heels, grabbed my head and kissed me. She smelled like fire and her thin frame against me was very exciting.
“Do you want to go home”? She asked
“OK.”
We headed back down, and I drove her home. I had no idea what to say and felt self-conscious in the silence. She smiled at me dashingly. Thoughts of further romanticism plagued my mind, but I was too afraid.
“I’ll see you later.” I said when we got to her place
“Are you busy?”
“I am…”
I got home that day and took a nap. Later, while making a sandwich, I thought about the hike and felt a sudden urge to call Josie, the bartender. I didn’t hesitate and dialed her number even though I could not get Ana’s intense eyes off my mind.
“I was just thinking about you” I told Josie.
“Tell me about it” she said in that friendly way of hers.
From my apartment’s window, I could see the mountains: the horizon marked by the flat irons against bright blue sky. Too much, I thought.
“Do you like hiking?” I asked Josie.
“Only once in blue moon.”
“Me too.”
We made plans for another date while Ana’s eyes finally left me. I was glad for that, and I looked forward to going out with Josie. It has been a year now, and unless something out of the ordinary happens, I expect Josie and I to move in soon. There’s a house on the suburbs outside Boulder that I am already thinking of buying. I did not go out with Ana again, but I saw her sometimes at the organic supermarket and chatted.
They say that when you least expect it, when you least think about it, that’s when suddenly a relationship knocks on your door. I had graduated from a small college about a year ago, had moved to Boulder, Colorado, was doing well at my first “real” job, was having a good time with my new friends, and was finally getting used to my mountainous environment, but then, out of the blue, I had to make a decision between two girls I liked.
Josie had moved to Boulder not long ago. She bartended at a bar, and I had a good time every time I visited her. I enjoyed watching her move from here to there, doing many things at once effortlessly: serving drinks, taking orders, sliding credit cards, chatting with customers, picking up empty glasses, put them in the washer and get new ones.
“You are like a fish in the water.” I’d tell her.
She’d wink at me and then go on with her business. It was only at the end of the night when we were able to have better conversations, usually about our impressions of town.
The other girl was Ana. She worked at one of those alternative supermarkets everybody around here goes to. If Josie moved about like a fish in the water, Ana moved as if she had the ability to teleport. It always surprised me how often I ran into her at different parts of the supermarket while shopping. We gradually started talking: she had moved to Boulder eons ago and was into this mysterious new age stuff that intrigued me. One day she asked me what I was doing Friday night.
That Friday we met at a coffee shop with shaky table tops and where some people she knew were playing. The music was unusual: long and winding electronic sounds that made me feel marooned in a strange planet. We started talking and I soon began to feel as if electricity was going to my head. Then it felt as if she was closer to me than she physically was. Other people’s chatter, music, cups clinking: all of it disappeared as I revealed rather intimate stuff about my life. Our conversation ended when a barista came and told us they were closing. Time had gone by very quickly, and I volunteered to drive her home.
“See you soon, hopefully.” She said as she stepped out of the car.
“I’ll give you a call,” I said and drove away.
I missed my turn on the way home; I had to do a U-turn three blocks down. We had talked about rather serious subjects, but I felt very stupid for missing my turn.
Once at my place, I realized that we had skipped dinner, and I prepared myself something to eat. It was the beginning of spring and ants had come to take my messiness off the sink for the first time this year. I‘ve always loved ants marching on my kitchen counter to retrieve crumbs or other food leftovers. They just go on minding their business without realizing that that all of them may die when I clean stuff up.
I went out with Josie, the bartender, two days later. We met at the video game arcades. We played a fighting video game all the way to the end. I could not believe a woman could pull up an uppercut in Street Fighter as fast as she did.
“You are good,” I said
“You are not bad yourself.”
Then we played air hockey and she had these pretty clever shots.
“You are pretty clever.”
“Yup.”
This place was a huge warehouse, and the lights from the video game and slot machines emanating made one feel like being inside a luminous city at night.
“We are lost in Tokyo,” I told her
“Can you find me?”
And she ran and I chased her up and down the rows of machines as if we were kids in an English garden. Then she ran outside and into the night and into the parking lot. And then she stopped and tiptoed on the yellow lines. I did too, and then I followed her to my car, where she reclined herself against (the car). I moved to kiss her and it was successful. I sensed the love seizing me. I love you and I want you, I thought.
We got into the car, and I drove her home. I did not feel the need to speak much and this was fine.
“Talk to you later” I said as she left me.
“Talk to you soon”
I really liked Josie, but I knew the stupidity of relying on one date, and I was still intrigued by Ana, so I decided to give Ana a call anyways. But it proved difficult, as if I did not really want to do it. I paced back and forth in my apartment until finally I dialed her number. Her voice over the phone was like a brush with silk, and I imagined her on the other side licking her paws. A date was set for breakfast.
The day of the date was a bright morning heralding a sunny day––it’s like this most of the time in Boulder even if it’s cold. I woke up hungry, but I had to wait because we had set the date at 10 a.m. If we had decided on an earlier time, we could have watched the skiers get breakfast before heading up to the mountains to catch the last days of snow.
One can’t see the mountains where people go skiing from here, but one can see the foothills leading up to them. They are green and red and have a very peculiar and well know characteristic, the flat irons, which are these gigantic rocks shaped like spears stuck in the earth. Their tops are like arrow heads that look like quartzes aiming at the sky. I saw these as I drove to the restaurant for my date with Ana.
Ana was already there when I arrived. She wore a necklace with a large and bluntly cut rock. We started talking about the weather, but soon our conversation turned just as it had done in our previous date, and she was telling me truths that felt like iron rods hitting me in the head. I was caught between trying to speak with commensurate transcendence and recuperating from what was said. I concentrated on her face, which I can’t describe except her intense blue eyes, which were scorching and mesmerizing, putting the rest of her face on a second plane.
After breakfast she suggested to go for a hike in the foothills. I breathed heavily as I hiked up. I turned to see how she was doing; she was unfazed and returned a smile that made me believe she was a mountain lion returning home. I looked at the forest ahead and did not know if I was moving to it, or it to me, but soon we were in it and under the shade of the pine trees.
“I am tired. I need some air.” I told her as I reclined against a tree.
Then she came over, lifted her heels, grabbed my head and kissed me. She smelled like fire and her thin frame against me was very exciting.
“Do you want to go home”? She asked
“OK.”
We headed back down, and I drove her home. I had no idea what to say and felt self-conscious in the silence. She smiled at me dashingly. Thoughts of further romanticism plagued my mind, but I was too afraid.
“I’ll see you later.” I said when we got to her place
“Are you busy?”
“I am…”
I got home that day and took a nap. Later, while making a sandwich, I thought about the hike and felt a sudden urge to call Josie, the bartender. I didn’t hesitate and dialed her number even though I could not get Ana’s intense eyes off my mind.
“I was just thinking about you” I told Josie.
“Tell me about it” she said in that friendly way of hers.
From my apartment’s window, I could see the mountains: the horizon marked by the flat irons against bright blue sky. Too much, I thought.
“Do you like hiking?” I asked Josie.
“Only once in blue moon.”
“Me too.”
We made plans for another date while Ana’s eyes finally left me. I was glad for that, and I looked forward to going out with Josie. It has been a year now, and unless something out of the ordinary happens, I expect Josie and I to move in soon. There’s a house on the suburbs outside Boulder that I am already thinking of buying. I did not go out with Ana again, but I saw her sometimes at the organic supermarket and chatted.