A 12 Date Romance
1. I met you around a bon fire at a bar called Hot Bird four blocks from my Brooklyn apartment. You showed me a picture of you and your brother as kids with the Pope (you somehow sneaked in to meet him). I snagged your moleskin notebook and in it wrote my favorite bird by bird quote, my name, and my phone number. I made you promise not to read it until after I'd left. My phone chirped 1 hour later with a text that said, "Hello bird, nice to meet ya :)"
2. When I got to Union Pool, you were getting two cans of Budweiser at the bar, and we took them outside because we were warm and it was cool outside. We talked about your light project and my last name, and next we went to your roommate's bar and sat on a faux stoop with twinkle lights strung above us. You told me you loved R.E.M. and I said I loved "Nightswimming." Later you played it for me on your piano.
3. At a bar located almost exactly between our two apartments, we drank red wine by an indoor fire pit. I revealed that technically I am a "sorority girl," and you promised you wouldn't judge. We walked together with your bike to Fulton Grand, and there I shared my obsession with Instagram, and we got you an account. You love it now, too. We follow each other. We bought hot chocolate at the Met, my grocery store, not the museum, and you bonded with my roommates' cat Tubs as I warmed up the milk.
4. You parked your car outside my apartment, grabbed 2 pears from your backseat for a movie snack, and we walked to Bam Cinema together, holding hands loosely "because of the height difference" you said. You are so tall. We put on dorky 3-D glasses and pretended to be Sandra Bullock and George Clooney for a couple of hours. We walked back in light drizzle. I remembered my pear in my purse the next morning.
5. We hadn't seen each other in almost a month, and I almost didn't recognize you without your glasses. We sat down with "proper hot chocolates" on coffee shop bar stools facing the street. You took out your moleskin notebook and we made lists for our New Year's Resolutions. Cook with eggplant more often. Write letters to lonely people. Sew pocket in my coat. We agreed to meet up again in 2014.
6. In a basement Comedy Club in the Lower East Side, we drank beers and laughed as comedians trash talked Brooklyn. The guidos sitting beside us with blinged out jewelry were obnoxious, and you asked them to be quieter in such a mature, polite way. We went to a biker bar afterward where I swear I saw Billy Idol while standing in line for the bathroom. We shared a slice of pizza on our walk to the train and recounted every famous person we've run into in NYC.
7. You rode your bike to my apartment even though it was essentially blizzarding out. You pulled fancy microwave popcorn out of your messenger bag, and we burned the first two bags, as I told you I was accustomed to do. We watched something very odd on Netflex, but I learned so much about highway construction. My mind was blown, and you laughed at me.
8. Dressed with a tiny bit of blue, you came to my Winter Blues party in Greenpoint and met all my friends. There was a keg and jello shots and drinking games, and I felt old and you felt really old. At the end of the night, we accidentally took the G train going in the wrong direction, and we had to stand on the cold platform in Queens for over 30 min. Even underground, we could see our breath.
9. We stood outside in 17 degree weather for an hour waiting to get into the Moth Story Slam at Housing Works Bookstore. It was so cold, but you let me put my cold hands in your coat pockets. Inside we talked about your beard and your 1.25 dimples, and laughed and cringed at the stories we heard. Afterward we had a nightcap at a place around the corner, and you told me the story of your happiest day. You drew a map on a bar napkin, and your face lit up as you story told.
10. On a Tuesday we met to talk in the East Village. We talked about heavy things for the duration of first beer, and light things for the duration of the second. I laughed so hard that I kept hitting my head on the copper decor hanging behind us. I do that when I laugh hard. Humor distracts me easily, and I had a lot to say that night that I didn't say. After I got home, I wrote you an email that, had I been my own English teacher, I would have given an "A." I hit send at 12:12.
11. You left your three doors open so when I got to your apartment, I could walk right in. It smelled like Thai food which you had made on the stove, and you handed me a pear cider that hit the spot. We watched sketch comedy, then bundled up to check out Beast of Bourbon. We walked in on Sheryl Crow Karaoke, immediately took shots, grabbed the song book, and started making song selections. We stood on stage, you in sneakers and me in rainboots, and we sang "Nightswimming." At midnight my eyelids got heavy, and you walked me outside to catch a cab.
12. It was above 50 degrees and sunny for the first time in months, so we met outside a coffee shop called Smooch, and we walked around Fort Greene Park. You were late because you couldn't find your wallet. Around and around we went, both in walking and in conversation. We realized that we wanted to go in different directions and that unfortunate timing put us in the direction of opposites forks in a metaphorical road. Before saying goodbye, we prayed to St. Anthony to help you find your wallet. After saying goodbye, I didn't know if I'd hear from you again, but I did an hour later. Your wallet was under a stack of papers.
2. When I got to Union Pool, you were getting two cans of Budweiser at the bar, and we took them outside because we were warm and it was cool outside. We talked about your light project and my last name, and next we went to your roommate's bar and sat on a faux stoop with twinkle lights strung above us. You told me you loved R.E.M. and I said I loved "Nightswimming." Later you played it for me on your piano.
3. At a bar located almost exactly between our two apartments, we drank red wine by an indoor fire pit. I revealed that technically I am a "sorority girl," and you promised you wouldn't judge. We walked together with your bike to Fulton Grand, and there I shared my obsession with Instagram, and we got you an account. You love it now, too. We follow each other. We bought hot chocolate at the Met, my grocery store, not the museum, and you bonded with my roommates' cat Tubs as I warmed up the milk.
4. You parked your car outside my apartment, grabbed 2 pears from your backseat for a movie snack, and we walked to Bam Cinema together, holding hands loosely "because of the height difference" you said. You are so tall. We put on dorky 3-D glasses and pretended to be Sandra Bullock and George Clooney for a couple of hours. We walked back in light drizzle. I remembered my pear in my purse the next morning.
5. We hadn't seen each other in almost a month, and I almost didn't recognize you without your glasses. We sat down with "proper hot chocolates" on coffee shop bar stools facing the street. You took out your moleskin notebook and we made lists for our New Year's Resolutions. Cook with eggplant more often. Write letters to lonely people. Sew pocket in my coat. We agreed to meet up again in 2014.
6. In a basement Comedy Club in the Lower East Side, we drank beers and laughed as comedians trash talked Brooklyn. The guidos sitting beside us with blinged out jewelry were obnoxious, and you asked them to be quieter in such a mature, polite way. We went to a biker bar afterward where I swear I saw Billy Idol while standing in line for the bathroom. We shared a slice of pizza on our walk to the train and recounted every famous person we've run into in NYC.
7. You rode your bike to my apartment even though it was essentially blizzarding out. You pulled fancy microwave popcorn out of your messenger bag, and we burned the first two bags, as I told you I was accustomed to do. We watched something very odd on Netflex, but I learned so much about highway construction. My mind was blown, and you laughed at me.
8. Dressed with a tiny bit of blue, you came to my Winter Blues party in Greenpoint and met all my friends. There was a keg and jello shots and drinking games, and I felt old and you felt really old. At the end of the night, we accidentally took the G train going in the wrong direction, and we had to stand on the cold platform in Queens for over 30 min. Even underground, we could see our breath.
9. We stood outside in 17 degree weather for an hour waiting to get into the Moth Story Slam at Housing Works Bookstore. It was so cold, but you let me put my cold hands in your coat pockets. Inside we talked about your beard and your 1.25 dimples, and laughed and cringed at the stories we heard. Afterward we had a nightcap at a place around the corner, and you told me the story of your happiest day. You drew a map on a bar napkin, and your face lit up as you story told.
10. On a Tuesday we met to talk in the East Village. We talked about heavy things for the duration of first beer, and light things for the duration of the second. I laughed so hard that I kept hitting my head on the copper decor hanging behind us. I do that when I laugh hard. Humor distracts me easily, and I had a lot to say that night that I didn't say. After I got home, I wrote you an email that, had I been my own English teacher, I would have given an "A." I hit send at 12:12.
11. You left your three doors open so when I got to your apartment, I could walk right in. It smelled like Thai food which you had made on the stove, and you handed me a pear cider that hit the spot. We watched sketch comedy, then bundled up to check out Beast of Bourbon. We walked in on Sheryl Crow Karaoke, immediately took shots, grabbed the song book, and started making song selections. We stood on stage, you in sneakers and me in rainboots, and we sang "Nightswimming." At midnight my eyelids got heavy, and you walked me outside to catch a cab.
12. It was above 50 degrees and sunny for the first time in months, so we met outside a coffee shop called Smooch, and we walked around Fort Greene Park. You were late because you couldn't find your wallet. Around and around we went, both in walking and in conversation. We realized that we wanted to go in different directions and that unfortunate timing put us in the direction of opposites forks in a metaphorical road. Before saying goodbye, we prayed to St. Anthony to help you find your wallet. After saying goodbye, I didn't know if I'd hear from you again, but I did an hour later. Your wallet was under a stack of papers.
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