It was 11:45am when I walked into the clubhouse. I picked up a rental set of clubs and then went out to find Stan and Robert. Along the way, I saw a row of golf carts parked in preparation for the groups to go out. One of them read 12:0@pm and had Robert's last name and mine printed beneath our start time.

I was just belting my clubs into the rack when I heard a startled gasp behind me. I turned around and my heart dropped into my stomach.

"Amber?" She was standing not ten feet away from me, dressed to the nines in a powder blue ensemble, complete with visor and white golfing shoes. It was clear she wasn't here just to hang out.

She seemed even more surprised to see me than I was her, and for a while, the two of us just stared back and forth at each other. Last time, her arrival had completely overwhelmed me with surprise. This time, while still surprised, I was recovering quickly and really just looked at her longingly.

Good lord she was beautiful. Sometimes I forgot how stunningly pretty she was. And as Amber looked at me pensively, all I could do was stare in disbelief at seeing her again. Since our last encounter, I had been waiting, preparing myself for our next meeting, steeling my emotions so that I could see her again while rational and in control.

I realized now that I might have waited forever out of fear. I would have never seen her again if I waited until I was "ready". But she was here now; and I desperately wanted to talk to her. More than that, I wanted to walk up and hold her, never to let her go. From the way she was leaning forward on the balls of her feet, she looked ready to jump me as well. But just before one of us could make a move, another golf cart drove up from the direction of the driving range: Stan and Robert.

“Ah, there you are dear. All set?"

Amber managed to take her eyes off me long enough to answer, “Yes, daddy." And with that, she hoisted her bag and brought it over to the cart, where she began strapping it in.

It was then that I realized that we were about to be paired together. With eighteen holes, that meant three hours at a minimum that I would be sharing a cart with her. I was really more shocked than nervous.

Amber muttered under her breath, “This is SUCH a setup."

I thought back to the little stunt her father and my EVP had pulled last night.

"Seems Like.

Amber leaned towards me, “Is this OK? I promised I would wait until you felt ready. And if you don't want to be here, you can leave. Or I'1l leave."

Automatically, I put my hand on her shoulder, patting softly.

"No. It's oK."

Only then did I realize what my hand was doing, and feeling like I'd just laid my hands on some expensive artwork I wasn't supposed to be touching, I yanked my hand back and blushed.

Amber glanced at her now empty shoulder and her lower lip quivered.

“Now you can't even touch me?" She looked ready to cry.

“No, no, it's not that. It's just..." I sighed.

"What did you expect?" “I'm not sure what I expected. I knew what I hoped." “And what did you hope?"

“That things could go back the way they used to be. That we could be in love the way I remembered it."

“Life doesn't work Like that." “I know, But a girl can dream, can't she?"

I didn't answer. Her dream sounded wonderful, but it was still dangerous. And for a moment I wished I could be a stupid teenager again, throwing caution to the wind and damn the consequences.

Robert called out.

“All set?"