“Me and Aiden went on  a few dates back when I was in high school, and he, I, just, just it didn’t end well”, she says tripping over her words.

            “Ash, you sure that’s all it is”,  I say not really buying what she just said.

            “Yeah, don’t worry about it, just please be careful with him if you’re going to talk to him. He’s not very good at taking no for an answer”, she says dejectedly. I just nod my head.

I really want to know what’s going on in her head right now, but I know she’s not going to tell me right now.

            I relax back into my seat and notice that we’re heading out of town.

            “Ash, where are we going”, I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

            “Just a place I used to love going when I was a teenager”, she says with a big smile on her face. I just look at her and can’t help the smile that breaks out on my face. She’ s so beautiful. The way her curls fall around her face framing it. Wow how in the world did I get so lucky? We drive for another ten minutes or so before she pulls up to this big warehouse thing.

            “Ash”, I say nervously as she starts to get out of the car.

            “Come on Spence”, she says smiling as she opens my door. She grabs my hand and pulls me up to the building. We enter the building and I’m met with a view of a bunch of ramps?

            “Skate park?” I ask turning to Ashley.

            “Yeah, I used to love coming here when I was younger. I got the owner to close up for the night so it could be just us”, she says sounding excited.

            “Ash, that’s cool, but I don’t know how to skate”, I tell her smiling.

            “I was hoping you didn’t. Now I get to teach you”, she tells me, a beautiful smile lighting up her face. She tugs on my hand and leads me over to a bench where I see helmets and knee pads and elbow pads already out. We get decked out in our gear and Ashley heads to the back to get a couple of boards.

                        She returns a few minutes later and says that she is going to show me her skating. I watch in awe as she effortlessly navigates the board up and down the ramps doing olies,  and half nelsons and other tricks I can’t name. after she rides for a few more minutes she returns to me breathing heavily but looking ecstatic.

            “Okay, come on let’ s get you balanced”, she says leaving her board and grabbing mine and pulling me to the center which is also the flattest part of the building. She holds my hands as I get on the board and try to balance myself.

                        “How’d you get so good at that”, I ask once I’m balanced on the board.

            “When I was a teenager I went through the whole rebel without a cause phase and I decided I wanted to skate so my dad would let me come out here. I got pretty good at it. It became something that I would do every weekend. I couldn’t wait to get out here and just release all the pent up energy and anger from the week. It just became my safe zone”, she says looking down.

            I take one of my hands from hers and lift it so that she is looking at me, “Thank you for sharing that with me”, I tell her honestly.

            “No problem”, she says smiling. She quickly recovers and gets back into instructor mode. She helps me move all the while holding my hands as I got a feel for the board moving. I loved having her so close to me. She seemed so relaxed slowly talking me through little tips and answering my questions. I almost fell a couple of time, but Ashley caught me before I could hit the ground.

                        She spent a good hour talking and walking me through basic things such as stopping and starting. I finally got comfortable enough for her to let me go, but even then she stayed close to me.

                        “Spence you hungry”, she asks me after another hour and a half of skating.