The Night In The Rain
Editor’s Note: In honor of Valentine’s Day, I’m posting one story each day for a week of a time in my life I felt particularly loved. Names have been changed or left out entirely, although I’m sure a few of you will recognize the stories. Maybe they are even about you. Happy Valentine’s Day! Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
I had just met him the day before, and by then I already knew not to expect much. Even despite his numerous text messages, I had still met him at a bar and I knew those types of introductions rarely led to anything. That’s why I hadn’t been too surprised when, after saying for most of the day he’d meet me that afternoon, that afternoon came and went with no definite plans as far as when or where. It was 7:30 when my phone chirped for the first time in 3 hours.
“I’m sorry for standing you up today,” it said.
My response was nonchalant. “Yuh huh, it’s ok,” I think I said.
Then he called me. It seemed odd, but I picked up anyway. It only got odder from there.
After some back-and-forth, with me giving him a hard time and him giving me excuses, he asked me what he could do to make it up to me. I really had no honest idea, so I stalled.
“What if I came up to your apartment and begged for your forgiveness,” he asked.
I could see right through that one though. “There’s no way I’m letting you in my apartment,” I told him.
“Well fine, you could tell me the general area, a place that you can see from your window, and I’ll go there. I’ll call you and beg for your forgiveness. I’ll get on my knees in the sidewalk if I have to.”
This I had to see. I told him the cross streets and what corner to stand on. I waited 20 minutes and my phone rang again. I looked out my window and there he was. I picked up.
“Alright, I see you,” I said.
He asked me if I was really going to make him do this, it was raining after all. I told him it was his idea. I watched him from my 3rd story walk-up window kneel down on the sidewalk across the street from my building, heard him say into the phone, “Please? Will you forgive me now? I really am sorry.”
It was a moment you think can only happen in the movies. So much so I had to blink a few times and take a fuzzy picture on my iPhone to make sure it was real. It was. Real enough that I started to feel bad for making anyone wait in the rain for too long. I grabbed my umbrella and a jacket and headed downstairs.
He was surprised to see me. Later he’d tell me he thought I lived in a different building. We sat outside on the ledge of a sidewalk garden for almost 45 minutes, sharing my umbrella and talking about our days, our lives, our selves. He mentioned he’d never done anything like that for anyone before, I mentioned no one had ever done anything like that for me ever.
I invited him inside when I got too cold and wet, and we continued our conversation in my bedroom. I won’t say we didn’t kiss, we did, but really we just talked. Two hours later he left, across the street past the same corner where a few hours before he’d knelt down in the rain and asked me to come outside.
