Kissed (by guest poster Hudi)

I could have talked about classical music, politics, contemporary philosophy, or any number of topics that I was actually interested in, but that wouldn't have gotten me anywhere. And after all, that stuff didn't matter nearly as much to me as getting to kiss this beautiful woman.
Instead, I asked her with intense curiosity about what "really goes on in her mind." I listened to everything she said, looking for clues. She was from Austria, so she probably felt something about her identity versus being mistaken for being German. She was a nurse, so she probably felt a need to talk about her passion for helping people. She spoke with such confidence in her voice that she was probably hiding some aspects of her personality which were far more self-conscious. She was traveling alone, so she was probably spending a lot of time reflecting on her life thus far. She was not partying with the other backpackers, so she probably felt that she was somehow too mature for such behavior.
And without even knowing what I was talking about, I managed to comment on all these things, mixing my words up just enough to cover up that I didn't know what I was saying. She was so impressed that she must have assumed that I was making a good point. If I noticed that something I was saying kept her interest for any extended moment, I would exaggerate, or simply just make stuff up. She was smart enough to fancy herself an intellectual and seek other like-minded people, but not quite clever enough to know when she was being taken for a ride.
In the end, lying there while she slept next to me, her breath teasing the skin on my face, I reflected on the whole event. From the very beginning, I wanted to kiss her. She probably didn't want to kiss me, but all it would take was a little work. And when it had all passed, there was no bonding of common minds, no serendipity, no underlying erotic pulse and growing sexual tension, but as long as she thought that these were all there, it worked out fine for me. Just another day at the office; psychology is a wonderful thing. Exaggerating, lying -- do these things really matter if we're both happy in the end? After all, as the old saying goes, "a kiss is a kiss is a kiss."