I remember when love was new and fresh and anything at all could send a tingle through me. I was nervous and unsure, but everything was great. That first kiss was everything it was supposed to be and more. Even holding hands for the first time made me feel warm and fuzzy. But gradually I became jaded. There were missed dates and long waits and an absence of phone calls. Things became more routine and I became jaded. Then someone new came along and it was like first love all over again. But the innocence had gone out of it. There seemed to be more of a desire for physical pleasure than for simple human contact. It was still good and it still made me giddy with happiness, until things began to fall apart. There were always other committments and a lack of time. There was lots of lying, not to each other, but to everyone else. Then we seemed to drift and then it was off to college and the shock of a new environment causing new rifts. Things broke down. Love felt like a business proposition. Meetings and phone calls were scheduled into the day. Then one half stopped communicating. So I found someone new. Then it was like a negotiation. I'd like this and you want that, so we're speaking the same language now and we'll both get what we want, except for love. And then the previous one came crawling back, saying that a mistake was made, communications shouldn't have been severed, is there anyway the partnership could be reentered?

So everything was laid on the table and negotiations resumed until an acceptable decision was reached, but the previous trust has dissipated. And both parties wished that things could go back to when things were simple and good and easily understood, but they both knew that things had become much too complicated for that. So I am forced to simply remember the simplicity that love once held and accept the fact that it cannot be found again because innocence has been lost.