Aberlour 10-year-old 40% Dram #35

I can't get my head around today. I'm not even sure about what I was hoping for. I wasn't expecting to be thinking as deeply, or with such a lot of doubt. Abi Lower and me: it had more of a ring yesterday. It had a nice fantasy ring to it, too, in the days when I only knew her as a pretty girl at school about whom no-one had a bad word to say. After being timetabled together for chemistry, I found out we got along and that I didn't have a bad word to say about her, either. So after our getting on so well together, my asking her out, her saying yes, our meeting up and kissing each other a couple of times and everything seeming hunky-dorey, why am I now so confused?!

We sat in the cafe for a couple of hours this afternoon. I was touching her hair every-so-often and smelling the organic richness of those nutty gold curls. The rest of her carried a honey-sweet scent, lively and inviting. The orange T-shirt appealingly accentuated her smooth curvy figure. All of this I picture now without any real emotion; this perhaps mainly down to our conversation which had no real spark, despite or maybe because of our antics at school. On our own, we couldn't come up with anything memorable.

There were a couple of quick kisses and her sweet, fruity lip gloss tasted really nice. She was a good kisser, too, but the overall sensation was... wrong. No, not wrong: just not quite right. What was going on? Why was it "not quite right"? I want to confront the flaw but it keeps hiding from me. Is it me? I just can't unearth the real fault - nothing comes specifically to mind. It's incredibly frustrating. Everything was pointing towards a really great relationship, one with fun, adventure and depth but I think both of us knew that something wasn't working. I got a kiss as we left the cafe, a little eager to separate. It was a different kiss, though, friendly and conciliatory. I can still vaguely remember the pear and apple tart suggested in that lip gloss and the vanilla ice cream she had had came through, too. She smiled. I shrugged. We were just too casual an acquaintance for any real passion.

In summary, the Aberlour was, for me, a bit like a girl you can't make your mind up about. I had heard great things from her ex-boyfriends (Micky Jackson and Jimmy Murray) but the chemistry just wasn't right. In looks and demeanour - absolutely faultless, as most of the lassies around the Elgin area are. I just couldn't get excited about this particular individual but, to persist with a metaphor, she has some older sisters...