It wasn't late yet, but threatening clouds had appeared on the horizon, and I had quite a drive ahead of me, and work the next day. "Don't go yet," she said. "Don't you want to wait for the storm?"
"Well, no, actually," I replied. "I was hoping to get ahead of it."
"But we can sit on the porch and watch it, let it pass over us, watch the lightning. I love storms when they get so"--her eyes widened considerably, and her hands formed crazy patterns--"intense, and the thunder gets so loud it's one continuous rumble, and you wonder if it's turned into a tornado, and you close your eyes and let it pass over you, like this could be your last moment on earth."
"Yeah, well." What the hell was I supposed to say to that? "Not a lot of fun to get caught in while you're driving, though."
"That's what I mean. Don't get caught in it. Stay here with me."
"Stay--how long? The night? I have to work tomorrow. I'd have to cut out early in the morning."
"Just stay for now. Until the storm passes."
We sat on her porch. She turned off all the lights in the house, the only illumination coming from distant lightning flashes or the passing headlights of the occasional car. "Times like this, I like it out here," she said quietly, almost as if talking to herself. "This is where I'm from, but it isn't where I want to be."
"What do you want?"
"Someplace where there's...something to do. But not too much. Or...I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I just want to keep moving, like wherever I'm at isn't where I'm meant to be." She paused. "You're not like that, are you? You're settled, you're--"
"Boring?"
"That's not what I meant. But, well, yeah. You don't have any sense of adventure left."
"Well, I'm here, watching a storm with you. That's something I've never done before."
She laughed. "OK. Good point." She drew closer to me. We kissed, even as both of us knew our time together had already started winding down.
