New (Year’s) Beginnings
After six endless months of planning, everything was finally set in stone. Tomorrow would not only be the start of a new year for me, but also to a new life. As I set my old, burgundy luggage by the front door, I took a minute to remember all of the good, bad, and just plain ugly things that happened to me in this small town of Hoxie. Ever since I was a little boy, I wanted to live abroad. Whether it was Nicaragua, Morocco, or Norway, I just wanted to experience the world. Unfortunately, my parents never saw the promise in that. They made me go to college locally so that I would not be too far away from them, which I completely detested at first, but soon grew to love. My parents supported me through all the stresses of school and helped me reach my potential, securing me my dream job of being a reporter. In a small town like Hoxie, with a population of less than 1500, there was never much news to report, for all the daily news would spread through this baseball loving, corn harvesting, coffee brewing town faster than the blink of an eye. Unfortunately, my dad got sick as soon as I started looking for jobs elsewhere. He quickly deteriorated, but told me during his last few days that he did not want our family business to end with him. He gripped my hand and begged me to take over, and I accepted. For years, I miserably managed our family produce business, but when my mom suddenly died last year, I knew my dreams had to be chased either now or never. I convinced my second cousin into buying our business, got an interview with CNN, and was hired soon after. They decided that they needed another reporter in Taiwan, and that’s how I got here today.
I checked to make sure all of my luggage tags were secured and that my passport was ready before finally locking the door to head to Eric’s party. Eric had been my best friend since the second grade. We were never the football jocks or the Ivy League bound brainiacs; we were just two skinny, awkward boys trying to make it through the school days. Eric was crushed to find out about my new job, and he made me promise that I would at least go to his New Year’s party as a last goodbye. As I walked into the door of my friend’s tiny apartment, I immediately turned into a sardine. Eric never had this many people over, but this year there were at least 50 people in this clustered space. I noticed the different crowds of people in different spots of the apartment. Eric’s gym friends were on the town-view balcony, his work friends were on the black leather couch discussing how awful their boss was, and his college friends were in the kitchen, pigging out on appetizers. I wasn’t sure which group I would approach, but then I saw Eric, with a big smile on that freckled face of his, approaching me.
“Luke! You made it, thank goodness. I was worried you’d leave the country early or something. Did you get that shaggy brown hair cut since the last time I saw you?” Eric asked, seeming genuinely relieved that I had come.
“Yeah, I did. The guy at the salon kept saying the shorter cut would open up my ‘GORGEOUS blue eyes’ more…so I thought, why not?”
“Ahahaha such a charmer you are. So listen, the drinks are in that cooler and the food is in the kitchen. Here’s the thing though, and I know you’re gonna hate me for this but consider it your last favor to me in a while. Andrea, that girl over there works with me,” he explained, pointing over to a rather attractive brunette sitting alone by the fireplace. “She just got dumped by her boyfriend of like a year, and she didn’t wanna show up but I made her. Instead of hanging with wasted Will or passed out Patrick, can you please just try to keep her company?” Eric pleaded.
“I mean she’s cute. Okay, I’ll try. But I don’t want to lead her on. There’s no chance of us going anywhere considering my plans for tomorrow,” I explained.
“That’s fine, Luke. I just want her to enjoy the night. Thank you, buddy” he said, patting my back and heading on to greet other guests.
I took a big sip of my drink for extra courage and approached Andrea. As I got closer, I realized just how well she was keeping it together. You could see the hurt in her eyes, but considering the circumstances, I was surprised she wasn’t covered in tissues and eating ice cream straight out of the carton. She was really pretty, not the kind of pretty that took a lot of makeup and hair product, but just really naturally pretty.
“Hi, Andrea right?” I asked. She took a sniffle and then nodded. “I’m Luke, Eric’s best friend. He told me you needed some company and said you’d be a better time than Will, who’s already on his fourth drink, so here I am,” I explained.
“Hi Luke, It’s nice to meet you. Sorry that I’m such a mess. I didn’t wanna bring everyone down tonight but Eric insisted I come. You really don’t have to hang out with me if you don’t want to,” she said.
“Nonsense,” I said, sitting down next to her. “I’m all for meeting new people and it’s not like I'm too fond of anyone else here. Tell me a little about yourself.”
We spent hours talking. She told me that she was switching jobs, and that the switch led to Bryan, her ex, dumping her. She told me that she loved to hike and that she and her mom hiked up to the Hollywood sign last month. She told me about her love for reading, and how she spent all summer re-reading her favorite books from when she was a teenager. As she talked, I noticed how well her dark navy dress suited her figure and how it brought out the sea-clear blue in her eyes. Moreover, this girl was beyond interesting. Every time she finished a story, she left me wanting to know more, but any time I asked her too much detail, she would giggle and refuse to answer. It was almost as if there was something I didn’t need to know, and I kind of liked that. 
Our great conversation was regularly interrupted by Megan, Eric’s gym friend. She was newly engaged to the biggest body builder I’ve ever seen, and she herself looked like she could lift a car with her bare hands. Anyways, her boyfriend was staying with his mother for the holidays and Megan couldn’t get time off of work, so she had to stay in town. She made it very clear that she wasn’t going to mope around about not having her midnight kiss, and that meant a lot of alcohol would be drunken. I don’t know exactly how many drinks she had, but I do know that she interrupted me telling Andrea about my childhood with a rendition of “Tomorrow” from Annie.
As midnight approached, everyone slowly partnered up for the big midnight kiss. I knew there was no chance that Andrea would consider kissing me, and I wasn’t too disappointed because I knew if the kiss was as special as she was, I would have a serious problem on my hands. The champagne was poured, Andrea and I joined the others as we all gathered by the flat screen that was broadcasting Dick Clark’s New Year’s Special, and Megan started to lead the countdown.
“Ten, nine, seven, ten!” she attempted. Oh, Megan. She was definitely something.
We tuned out her attempts with our own countdown and after what felt like a decade, midnight had finally come. Before I could take a sip of the champagne, I felt two small hands grabbing my face and pulling me in, and before I knew it, I was kissing the most beautiful girl in the room. I was in so. much. trouble.
I pulled back and reached for her hands.
“Andrea, please listen to me. I’ve never met someone like you. You are so special. But I’m leaving town tomorrow. Actually, I’m leaving the continent tomorrow. I can’t start something here now,” I belted out, not realizing how offensive it probably sounded
“I…I’m sorry,” she mumbled, hiding her face from me.
I took a breath and tried to start explaining myself, but she ran off into Eric’s guest bedroom and locked the door, refusing to open up to anyone. Man, I had completely blown it. I went towards the cooler to take a water bottle, head home, and try to forget this awful night, but I was stopped by good old Megan.
“Hey man! Haven’t seen you since you blacked out at Eric’s Fourth of July! But I heard about the whole move, Mr. international” She said, giving me a friendly…and very drunken punch on the arm. “What happened with you and he misses?”
“Ahaha…I just met her tonight. She was great, and I’m rethinking the whole move now. I think I could be missing out on the girl of my dreams” I said, realizing just how dumb I was sounding. Maybe I was as drunk as Megan if I was talking like this. Megan attempted to console me, but I knew nothing could dig me out of the hole I just buried myself in. I sat by the fire for half an hour so that I wouldn’t have to drive with too much alcohol in me, and as I grabbed my coat, I saw Megan sprint over to me faster than chugged down her beers earlier that night….so really fast.
“Where exactly as you moving to again, ace?” she said with great excitement.
“Taiwan. It’s for some new project they’re launching abroad. They have crews going into different countries to report on how the U.S.’s freshwater well projects are coming along,” I explained, remembering the adventure ahead of me and trying to see the positive in this situation.
“IS THIS FOR CNN?” Megan asked extremely loudly.
“Yeah! How’d you guess?”
“BECAUSE YOUR MISSES IS ON THAT CREW, YOU DUMMY”
“I’m sorry what?” I asked, guessing that she was past drunk and into the delusional phase.
“The Taiwan Tracking Team or some cheesy nickname like that, right? I went to talk to her and make her feel better and she explained to me that she was leaving too. She’s a camera girl. Did you even know that about her?”
“Yes that’s us! Oh my…wow. No, I had no clue. I knew she left her old job but when I asked, she switched the subject so I assumed it reminded her too much of her ex or something. I have all the names of the people on the crew but the list is so long that I never bothered reading it” I rambled.
“Well, I didn’t tell her you were on it because I didn’t know if you would want her to know yet, but she said she didn’t want to tell you because she wanted one last fun night and then after the kiss she realized she liked you, and became all vulnerable, you know like we females do. But yeah, the ball’s in your-” before she could finish, I gave her a big hug and ran to the guest room.
“Andrea…please open up. We need to talk, and if your reaction to it is anything like mine, I think there’s some hope in this really crappy night,” I reasoned.
After the longest minute of my life, she had finally opened up. I explained to her the situation and how I felt and she looked genuinely shocked. I couldn’t blame her, after all, what are the odds that out of the 50 something people chosen for this crew, two of them were us. She told me that she liked me too, but that she didn’t know if it was the champagne and emotions talking or if it was actually her. So we left it at what it was that night. And it sucked. When I got home, all I could think about was how much easier things would be if I had never gone to Eric’s at all. But then I realized that easy wasn’t what I needed. I had it easy for my whole life with the produce business and this small town, and I was leaving it to be challenged. So, after the awkwardness of seeing each other the following night in a completely different country had passed, I began trying. I did everything to try to get her to give me a real chance, and finally, after a mid-day group lunch 20 days into the project, she told me I could take her out to dinner one night. The rest is history-- the good kind, but I owe it all to a stupid ex boyfriend who refused to do long distance, a wasted friend who was the ultimate mediator, and the fireplace that was almost as hot as the girl who sat next to me that strange, strange New Year ’s Eve.