“Don’t kill the vibe, Graham.”

She looked at me standing just a few feet away. As she had been getting closer and closer, I’d been steering the conversation further and further than how it was meant to go.

In my head the stars should have been realigning for us. Snow falling as we kissed. Straight out of a telenovela. But of course what was really happening was the harsh reality of how I couldn’t handle the vulnerability of that kind of intimacy- and without that, there could be no telenovela romance.

But her advice to stop breaking up our connection, it was just enough time for me to retreat back into my head. That pause was just long enough for her to take that extra step forward and now there was only one more step to take.

And so leaving behind my insecurities, I kissed her with everything I had.