"This has been the best week of my life," Melina said, her voice catching at the end. "I'm sorry, I know I've been the one to say that we shouldn't think about when all this ends, but I can't help it."
"I know," I replied, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. I thought about it and decided I couldn't help but say what I had to say. "Melina, I have something to say. Uhm, I know this sounds strange because we've only known each other for a week, but, well . . .”
"Yes?" she said, turning her beautiful face to me. I could see the unspoken words in her eyes, the question she wanted to ask but was too afraid to.
Though every fiber in my body told me this could be a mistake, I couldn’t help myself. “I think I've fallen in love with you," I said softly, stroking her cheek. "You're amazing, kind, funny . . . you're everything I've ever looked for in a woman."
Melina turned her face away from me and looked out at the ocean. She sat forward, leaning her elbows on her knees. I sat next to her, saying nothing, letting her process what I'd just said. It's not the sort of thing you expect to hear from a vacation fling.
Finally, just when I thought she wouldn't say anything and I'd have to break the silence before it became uncomfortable, she spoke, her eyes still fixed on the low hanging moon.
"When I came here, I didn't know what was next in my life. I'd lost my job, I hated everything about where I lived, and to be honest, I was pretty hollow on the inside. I was hoping this vacation could allow me to escape, but I never expected this.”
“When you came up to me on the beach that day, and since then I've felt better, felt more beautiful, more alive than I have in my entire life. Wednesday, when we made love on that mountain, it was the most amazing experience,” she said, her voice quavering. "This whole time, you've been an amazing man. I guess what I'm saying is, I've fallen in love with you too."
I slid behind her, taking her in my arms. "Then what's the problem?"
"The problem is that Lima is exactly one thousand six hundred and four miles from Truth or Consequences," she said, her voice breaking. "I looked it up this morning after breakfast on the lobby computer. Sixteen hundred miles. And I can't imagine us surviving sixteen hundred miles. No matter how perfect you are for me, we've only known each other a week. How can love survive that?"
I thought about it for a moment. "It doesn't have to, you know. Did I ever tell you about my parents?"
Melina turned and looked at me, curious. "No.”
I laughed softly and laid back on the mat, staring up at the sky. "My Dad was in the Air Force. He was an F-15 pilot, an Eagle Driver back when the Eagle was the hottest shit in the sky. Anyway, this was back when Reagan and Gorbachev were just sitting down to talk, and they were trying to do a lot of public affairs stuff about peace and cooperation, so he was invited to be part of some sort of air show. He was stationed in West Germany at the time, and he thought it'd be a lot of fun. Anyway, the event was to take place over the course of three days, in what was East Germany. Dad flew in, and the first thing he says he saw when he got out of his Eagle was this beautiful East German Lieutenant."
"Your Mom is German?"
I nodded. "Yep. She was the assistant public affairs officer for the East German Air Force, picked because she had perfect English. Anyway, over the course of three days they got to know a lot about each other, and I think from the way they told me about it, they fell in love back then. They couldn't stay together then, of course, it was the height of the Cold War, but they traded letters, heavily censored of course since he was American military and she was East German military.
Later on, though, Mom took a chance. She’d been assigned to be part of the security detail for Katarina Witt for the 1984 World Championships, which were in Ottawa. On the second to last night, right after Witt had been checked on, Mom supposedly went on a security patrol with her partner. She rounded a corner and knocked out her partner, running away. Somehow she made it all the way to the US border without the Germans finding her. She had nothing but East German papers, her warm up suit that all the members of the athletic team were supposed to wear, and a phone number."
"Your dad?" Melina asked, and I shook my head.
"No, Dad knew that there'd be no way she could contact him there, he was in West Germany and would most likely have rotated back to the States. He’d given her his parent's phone number. The border patrol was willing to let her make the call, and Grandpa called Dad. The State Department got involved of course, but in the end, they agreed to give Mom refugee status, provided of course that she had family in the USA. So, Dad provided one and married her."
Melina sat there quietly for a moment, then turned and smiled. “That’s an amazing story. But you know, I’m not quite ready to get married yet. I mean, I haven't even met your parents."