The Kiss

        The neon advertisements were reflecting into the polished by the drizzle asphalt. It was rippling and the wet was permeating everywhere but he did not feel it. The tiny drops that were alighting on his face as if purified him and the man wrapped in his leather coat with lifted collar with his hands in the pocket, slightly smiled.
        “It is time to kiss you,” – the woman by him whispered. – “We have known each other for years.”
        “It is so. It was a good time and I was always ready for you.”
        He was calm. There was no even a sign of the airily embarrassment that he had felt each time when he met her warm sparkling look somehow mysterious above her naughty smile. He was calm because this night all the conventions that had been chasing them for those long years, all the obstacles he had been waiting to melt, finally disappeared for good. Everything between them had already become clear.
        “What are you thinking about?” – She asked.
        He stopped and looked at her. He could not look away from her face.
        “I think that I love you. Indeed.”
        “You love me?” – She smiled. – “Isn’t it a bit weird? Nobody had loved me up to now... or at least, not indeed. In contrary...”
        “People do not know you,” – he interrupted. – “They are hectic in their daily routine, they are chasing life and they have no time to look at you and feel you because of their wild ride. And you are not a kind of a person who obsesses, who stamps and looks for attention.”
        “Yes,” – replied the woman and became thoughtful.
        It was silent as if the city had fallen asleep soundly. They were walking calmly in the empty street without touching each other – he, because he was making decision and she, because she was awaiting still.
        “Most of the people are blind for the beauty,” – the man continued. – “One needs a bravery to accept it.”
        “But you did it. You have accepted me for a long time. Why?”
        “Do not you deserve it?” – He wondered. – “But you have always been by me, you have helped me so many times!”
        “No-o-o... I was by you just sometimes and I haven’t helped you. I used just to come from time to time to see you.”
        “Despite of this, your presence helped me. Maybe, you haven’t always been by me but I felt you there. The feeling was so vivid as if you had never separated from me.”
        “I know it. It is pleasant to know it that I have helped you in some way.”
        “And not only once!” – The man said and raised his head indulged in his memories. – “When my career that I had worked for years failed, you were the one who didn’t let me sink and you again gave me a will to live; when my wife left me and I was on the edge, you were again the one who helped me to get on my feet; when friends betrayed me, exactly you helped me not to get mad and to keep going... I dare to say that I do not desperate easily but when we met each other it was hard to me to overcome life’s obstacles and it was also hard to me to stay upright, with my head up and I kept living with a smile and with zeal only thanks to you.
        “Thank you.”
        The woman bent her head and looked at the colorful reflections on the wet asphalt.
        “Do you remember how we met each other?”
        The man smiled.
        “How could I forget how you stayed at the end of my bed in the hospital when it was not clear if I would survive?”
        “Yes, it was so. But I knew it you would survive.”
        The rain kept sprinkling tiny droplets – light like a vapor.
        “It is time,” – She said silently and looked at him with his warm eyes. – “I am about to kiss you. Are you ready?”
        “You know it. I have been ready for years.”
        Their intertwining eyes did not leave each other. She ran her hands on his shoulders, stroked his hair, embraced him slowly and very carefully as if even hesitatingly, touched his lips with hers. They were staying in the middle of the street, sunk in the most tender kiss which both of them had ever experienced.
        When they started walking again, inseparably embraced, the world did not exist for them anymore. They did not notice the red lights of the ambulance that were nervously twinkling somewhere behind them. They did not feel people’s hesitation, they did not hear their voices:
        “Nasty rain! Bring the stretcher and let’s load – we are wet all over!”

        “Hour of death 11:15 pm. Close the doors and let’s go.”

~~~~~~~~~

Translated by: Vessislava Savova