VintageGold

Semester abroad. USA. The first time I visited the States and the first time I lived in such a multicultural place like my dormitory, where there were so many different nationalities that no one was itching for the subject anymore and everyone was just human. Nowhere was anyone asked where they came from, what kind of accent that was, but, "what are your dreams?", "what places on this planet have you traveled to?", "what do you want to create and achieve in life? An ambitious and yet totally human atmosphere. And so was Lily. Lily, the exchange student from Shanghai. On the very first day, she caught my eye and sparked my interest. Her skin was so pure, smooth, like porcelain with a light tan. Her eyes, large and dark, her long, straight, deep black hair kept gliding over her shoulders as if made of silk. The hosts, i.e. the students living there, who helped us exchange students during our semester to find their way in, organized a first shopping spree at the nearest Wallmart on the first evening. There we gathered our utensils and again and again I tried to be close to Lily. She didn't make it easy for me because she was in clearly defined ladies' departments and I had my difficulties to pretend that there was something I needed. Again and again I sniffed a pleasant and unique scent on her, so that I quickly found her again when I walked along the neighbouring corridors to look for my things together.

But I soon noticed the numerous rivals who had the same intentions as I did. One of them had obviously taken a liking to her, Alejo, a spirited Ecuadorian who had been sticking out of the group all the time because he carried his guitar everywhere to strum it. On the way back she sat next to him in the bus and a mixture of jealousy, disappointment and despair made me stew the ride with a thick toilet in my throat. During the ride I tried to cheer myself up, there were so many other pretty girls sitting there in the bus with us. The Irish and British girls were dressed very revealingly and made it very clear how they wanted to spend their semester abroad. It would have been so easy, but their heads wouldn't allow it. They were sexy and pretty, but too easy to get and on top of that they smelled like shit - compared to Lily.

The first week went by, there was a lot of partying, here and there kisses were exchanged with the light girls, my roommate was a bourgeois, always went to bed at 10 pm on the dot and wouldn't let me take a girl to my room. So I spent more time in the girls' wing of our dormitory than with us boys. Lily was still present in my head and whenever I saw her with Alejo, jealousy would rise, but the jealousy was gone. I avoided being around her because I knew it would make me feel worse. But then in the second week, it became inevitable. We were partying again and on the way back from the club to the dormitory I boarded the same shuttle as Lily and Alejo, as well as a few others of our guys. Alejo sat in front, directed the shuttle driver and Lily took a seat next to me. Slightly drunk, she put her legs in my lap and leaned her back against the door. The heat rose into my head, my hands lay on her legs and I knew nothing better to do with them than to stroke them. Alejo kept looking back worried, asked Lily if she was all right. Slightly annoyed, she let him know that everything was okay. At some point, she leaned forward and whispered "shrine" in my ear. I asked her what she was trying to tell me. "Pig" was the answer. "Aaah, you mean pig..." I said. Yes, that was the word she meant, nibbling at my earlobe. Whole-body goose bumps spread through me and I probably sounded like an idiot when I started cackling about it irritated. When I was finally able to stop the ridiculous cackling and started to ignore Alejo's punishing look, I turned my head to Lily. The moment i went to ask her what she was actually doing, she kissed me. Explosion. In my head, my chest, my pants. Alejo didn't exist anymore at that moment and everyone else didn't seem to care about what was going on anyway. With my arrival at the dormitory, my consciousness came back, until then it was a whirlpool of passion in which I was caught, like a dream that lasted forever. Alejo ripped open the door, reached out to Lily and led her out. To this day I don't know how much he had seen, I felt as if he hadn't seen anything of the kiss, realistically speaking it borders on impossibility.

Again, only a hint of Shanghai Lily remained in my nose. She always wore it, it was her signature scent, her identification mark, her personal scent mark. The next day I met her in the communal kitchen. I asked her if she remembered anything about yesterday. Her smile, the lowered look down and silence told me that what she had experienced was real and not a drunken accident. Her cheeks turned slightly red and I knew that if you didn't show her now what the moment the previous evening meant to you, you would never play a bigger role than a short, passionate moment in her life. I grazed her cheeks with both thumbs, pointed her head up and kissed her like I had never kissed a woman before. She tasted, she smelled good, like an aphrodisiac that releases powers, I grabbed her by the hip and lifted her onto the table. If there hadn't been others in the room, I don't know if I would have known any limits there.

It made my semester very turbulent. I wanted to spend every spare minute with Lily, unfortunately it wasn't 100% reciprocal. She was still spending time with Alejo. Alejo and I had become sort of frenemies. We actually liked each other, and I thought his personality was cool, and I was impressed by her. He also liked my relaxed and open-minded nature. We came to terms with the fact that Lily was a free spirit and didn't want to commit. We also got along with other girls when she let us down. When I look back on that time today, I miss her like nothing else. It was the best time of my life. Lily's married now, and she has a kid. Her husband looks just like me... me and not Alejo. Sometimes, no, quite often still, I think I should've just tried asking her to be my girlfriend. I'm sure I would've married her someday. All I have left now is this scent of Tom Ford

Now I have told a long story, but the information how I actually found out about Shanghai Lily is still missing. At first I didn't know that Lily wore a perfume and thought it was her own body scent, which just smells so fantastic. Because she tasted good too and I attributed it to her body chemistry. In her room, I noticed the bottle, and I asked her if it was a coincidence that...