Eye Smiles. What did you see?

I remember those eyes smiling at me.
Staring up at me through those long beautiful lashes of yours,
face half hidden by the arm of the couch.
I couldn't see the smile peaking through your lips but the smile in your eyes had me transfixed.
Still,
It was the most beautiful eye smile I'd ever seen.

I didn't know what to think of you.
You were staring at me,
really looking at me,
seeing me.
Seeing past the good looks, the green eyes, a daring smile.
You roused confusion, apprehension, and intrigue like nothing that I'd experienced and have yet to experience again.

As apprehensive as I was,
I wanted those dark beautiful eyes to see me forever.
To look at me and stare me straight in the soul,
Because in that moment,
everything in me softened,
the rest of the world fell away,
my heart was naked
and I'd never felt so free.

I wanted so badly to kiss you.
That being said,
I must admit that I was certainly much too inebriated.
Still, a certain instinctual urge inside of me wanted to pull you close
and take what I wanted.
But I couldn't.
And I wouldn't.

You were different.
And a part of me responsible for self control suddenly grew a backbone stronger than I can explain.
I had to wait.
You were worth the wait.
Knowing at the time,
that there was a very large cloud of uncertainty surrounding the actualization of a future with such a beautiful woman come morning,
I would still wait.
A woman with eyes like those
that was capable of seeing me so
would be worth every second.

Actually,
It was probably only a few seconds that you stared up at me behind the arm of that couch,
But I see it all over and over again in my dreams
both sleeping and awake,
I swear it feels like hours.

Still,
It doesn't matter how long you stared,
how long I stared,
how long we stared.
Because in those few seconds, minutes, hours
I suddenly wanted to become a better man.

I'm well aware of how cheesy and cliche that sounds
and as I write this,
I hate that I can't find better words
because it truly is both cheesy and cliche.
But it's also the absolute truth.

I'd always wondered if declarations like that were true
Or if they were just the go-to cheeseball line for every popular romantic comedy to come out of Hollywood.
Oh the irony.

Nonetheless, I swear,
That night I wanted to kiss you,
feel your lips on mine,
but the thought of you closing those beautiful eyes
and stealing such an intimate physical moment from your breath seemed so wrong.
You were meant to be so much more than a drunken kiss.

Thus,
I kissed your hand and whispered you good night instead.
And as I lay down to sleep,
knowing that you were laying not more than two feet from me
I swear I stopped breathing.
And when breath finally found its way back into my lungs,
a million little fluttering sensations filled every ounce of my core.

This went on for some time,
my mind reeling
until the very moment when sleep consumed me.
Even then,
through the entire night,
I dreamt of those eyes
and the man I wanted you to see that I could be.