He paced the room now, walking in circles. Each item he passed, he touched...pausing slowly to take in each of the painful memories that came with them. A tear for each happy memory. A tear for each thought.

He reminisced about the time when she had brought him to meet her family. God, the smile on his face when he found out there was lipstick on his shirt! They had just come back from a night of talking... of playful joking around in the parking lot of a bowling alley. When he returned her home, she had invited him inside to meet her sister and cousin who were visiting for the time.

When the formalities had been dispensed, he had found himself sitting in front of them all, like a TV...sitting in front of them. He, the main attraction, he had the center stage.

If they had seen it on his shirt, they gave no notion. They eased the tension by changing the subject from the aforementioned outing to the journey of the cousins. From Mexico they had come...partying in TJ.

Sometime during his stay there with her family, he had been thirsty. Politely, he asked the girl for a drink, taking her back into the kitchen.

"Oh my gosh!" she had said, her hands going up to cover her mouth, her eyes lighting up with surprise.

"What? What's up?" he asked, oblivious to the thing that had been so blatently apparent to her.

"Your sleeve! Look!" she said, pointing to the lipstick. "It must've been when I kissed you.. it...I dunno!" she said in feigned shock.

"I can't believe it! You! I....oh my god." he said, with equally feigned anger. A smile had cracked his "anger", until it broke out into a laugh.