Kevin and KatheRINe in the Next Lifetime

As Rin settled in for the long plane ride to an Island called Lanai in Hawaii to meet Kevin, she recalled some of her past with Kevin. There were indeed those 10 years of being together off and on, and within the last 15 years, they never saw each other in person. They kept in contact by phone and text messages nearly every week, sometimes every day, and even sometimes all day long back and forth with short texts and phone calls when time permitted. They knew everything about each other’s lives whether it be doctor’s appointments, dentist and eye glass appointments, surgeries, families, and more.
They kept up with the painful deaths of their parents and loved ones, and consoled each other through the grief. They knew each other’s allergies, aches, pains, troubles, and sorrows – they knew each other’s deepest secrets, wants, and desires. They talked about old friends and colleagues. And they would often talk about the times they had together – their intimacies in exceptional detail - as well as the fun times with each other and colleagues. Those intimate discussions sometimes led to phone sex or just a beautiful recollection of what it was like to be together. She loved Kevin then, and she loved him more now.
Rin ordered a drink to help her relax. She was very anxious about seeing Kevin and still concerned whether he would travel all that way to come meet her. The drink only brought her into deeper thought about their past. She remembered how they first met. She was a young contract lawyer and engaged to a Black man at the time (who was also an attorney) when she walked by this very tall, good looking white man in the lobby area of an office building. She had never seen a white man that good looking in person and had to do a double take. He was well over six feet – (about six feet two or three) - and that’s saying something. Rin was tall herself.
The man had blond hair, fair skin that looked recently tanned, broad shoulders and even that square jaw folks talked about that makes a man a man. His eyes were a piercing greenish blue – they almost seemed unreal. He was clean shaven, and wore a crisp white shirt tucked into freshly ironed blue jeans with a large silver buckle like some sort of good old boy, but not quite - more like what Kevin Costner would wear in one of his western movies. And Rin loved Kevin Costner. Nevertheless, this man could have graced the cover of a magazine or starred in one of those action-packed hero movies. He was beyond gorgeous! She looked back at him and saw he had a beautiful, full butt as well – how does a white man get a butt like that she thought? Overall, this white man was stacked, and built like a shit brick house. He was, indeed, something to see. Oh well, she thought as she smiled, and turned back around and kept walking toward the elevator. But she surprised herself for even noticing him in the first place and just shook it off.
Long before Rin met Kevin, she thought about all those times her girlfriends went out for drinks and dinner and the subject of relationships came up – what they were going through with men, who they were dating, and so on. There were conversations about dating outside their race as well, when one of her friends talked about maybe dating this white man she met. Rin recall saying, “Girl please! A white man can’t do anything for me, I’m just not attracted to them. I could never date one.” They would all laugh. One of her friends replied; “never say never girl.” Rin thought that was such a long time ago – and look where she is now.
So after seeing Kevin for the first time in that office lobby area, Rin started to look at her phone as she headed to the elevator for her meeting. She was always on time – which meant she was at least 15 minutes early. The blond man doubled back and somehow ended up in the same elevator to her surprise. He smiled at her, started some small talk about the weather and such, and quickly asked for her name. She said, “my name is Katherine.” She never referred to herself as Kat, Kate, or Katie - as others did. She liked her full name - until later (that man she fell in love with - Kevin) began to her Rin. As the elevator door began to open and just before she got off the elevator, she asked the man (somewhat flirtatious), so what is your name? He said, “my name is Kevin, and its very nice to meet you Katherine”. “Nice to meet you too Kevin”. He touched the down button for the first floor and said – “hope to see you again Katherine” as the elevator door closed. Rin thought that was odd, but very cute - the pretty white man showed a little interest. But even though she was making a joke to herself, there was something about this man with blue eyes and blond hair. There was a connection, indeed – she felt butterflies in her stomach. It made no sense.
For some reason, Rin never told anyone about the encounter, and never expected to see him again, but she thought about Kevin most of the day. The very next day, another meeting was scheduled with the same client – it was odd that a second meeting was called so quickly. It turned out that the good-looking white guy (Kevin) was in the same meeting. He was a commercial developer, and they had the same client. She didn’t realize just how truly handsome he was until he stood up to greet her – she wore flats that day – and he just towered over her. Nice to see you again Katherine. She just nodded. Upon shaking hands, he held it a little longer than expected. He looked very serious but managed to smile. Kevin made her a little nervous. She didn’t know why? She’s done business with white men before, but this time she was really nervous. When he held on to her hand longer than he should - it was almost like he read her mind. Kevin apologized for staring and said he didn’t know why he did that. It was inappropriate and to please forgive him. Rin indicated all was forgiven and smiled – while looking directly into his beautiful blue-green eyes.

They found themselves working together quite a bit – and Rin started to have feelings for Kevin. Deep and growing feelings. He hadn’t made a pass or given her any reason that he was interested in her that way, but the feelings for Kevin kept coming, they kept growing. One day, as they were walking back to their cars, Rin mentioned she had a dream about him. She didn’t mean to say it out loud, it just came out. Kevin perked up, and started pestering her as to what the dream was about. She said, “Oooh no Kevin, nothing like that, it was just a dream about work – nothing more”. “I don’t believe you” he said. “What was the dream about Rin?” She said, “what made you call me Rin”? “I don’t know, it just came out "Rin"!. You look like a Rin to me. It has great meaning in the Japanese culture. That’s what I’ll call you from now on - Rin. I’ve been thinking about calling you that for a long time anyway. Everyone else calls you Kat, Kate or Katie. I wanted to have my own name for you.” Rin said, “I like it. I really like it very much!”

Kevin finally left the idea alone - that Rin had a dream about him. He closed her car door, and they went their separate ways. The next day at work, Kevin asked Rin about that dream again – he wouldn’t let it go that day. She finally confessed the dream was about a connection she felt they had – a special friendship and attraction. Apparently, he had been thinking about her a lot before that conversation, he had many dreams and thoughts about Rin – and it was more than a friendship. He just needed her to say something about how she felt. And so it began.