Kiss & Tell

My first ever kiss happened when I was young, probably too young. I guess I was an early bloomer in this regard. It happened one sunny afternoon in a vacant park against the fence that went around a baseball diamond. I was wearing really cool acid washed Jordache jeans and a pink t-shirt (funny how we remember these things!). We flirted and I leaned back against the fence and our lips met. As the kiss progressed from G rated to PG, a buzzing feeling worked its way through me. It was heaven! When the kiss ended, I remember feeling conflicted. On one hand, I was so happy I thought I might spontaneously combust or float away. On the other hand, I was worried that somehow word might get out about our kiss and somehow, even then, I knew that this wouldn’t be a good thing. I asked the boy to please keep it to himself and he promised he would but alas, the boy did not keep his word. It wasn’t long before gossip of our scorching, scandalous, seedy smooch swept through our school like a bad 80s song. One would think that this habit of over sharing would lessen as we age but this isn’t always the case. In this day and age of overly overexposing everything, it seems almost expected to give all of the juicy details away.

Everything about Corey was cute from his dimples to his fondness for old school Converse high-tops. For some reason he reminded me of Kevin Bacon in Footloose and I kept expecting him to break into dance. What I wasn’t expecting was from him was a barrage of not so nice words about his former girlfriends. Yes, we all know that talk of former partners is not great fodder for dates but no one can seem to resist this taboo topic. As Corey went on about the controlling, conniving, carnal women of his past I did my best to keep smiling. But inside, I couldn’t help wondering what C word he was going to throw out next and what he might have to say about me if, God forbid, things didn’t progress to his liking. I decided to count my losses and move on from cute Corey.

Paxton and I were set up through mutual friends. Though he worked in advertising, he looked like he could be a Gap model with his wicked blue eyes, flashing smile and wonderfully unruly hair. He picked a trendy dinner in Gramercy Park and we ordered fun mixed drinks in splashy neon colors. By the time dessert arrived, he had waded into ex-girlfriend territory and couldn’t stop talking about Lisa – a sweetheart of a gal who he met online and who he had dated when she was going through a tough phase of her marriage. Excuse me? Did he just say he dated a married woman? I forced my eyes not to boggle. If that weren’t enough, Paxton went into great detail about Lisa and her ludicrously limber limbs. I couldn’t help it, my eyes boggled and I nearly choked on my éclair. TMI!

It seems so many people (both men and women) have a tendency to give too much away. Whatever happened to the quaint notion of keeping private things private? My sister believes that sharing the details of something special takes the shine from it and part of me agrees with her. Of course, if you’ve read this far you might be confused. After all, isn’t blogging my own little version of kissing and telling? Yes, I admit it, it is. But, I do try to strike a balance between what I share (lots of thoughts about relationships and stories about challenging dates) and what I don’t (wouldn’t you like to know!). I like to think that when it comes to the really good, shiny stuff, my lips are sealed.