the day we met

Sunday, August 21st, 2022

Very nearly one year ago… August 22nd, tomorrow, to be precise…

I drove to the airport to pick up a handsome American boy who was flying in from Ohio, through Chicago. He was coming to stay with me for twelve days, and even though we had spent over eight months talking every day, I had never actually met him.

Our friends and families found this all a bit surprising- perhaps a long weekend visit was more reasonable? But, we had waited so long for the border to reopen that both of us quickly agreed, twelve days just made sense.

I did my hair (it fell flat right away in the summer humidity), sprayed myself with a perfume I bought when I lived in France (reserved for only the most special of occasions) and was on my way. My friends were texting me excitedly, asking if I was nervous. Somehow, I wasn’t at all.

I parked the car just as he was crossing over from the terminal to the garage. He found the wrong floor, walked down a flight of stairs and finally emerged from the stairwell to see me standing there, waiting. He was tall and his smile was warm and he was wearing a brown button-up that now hangs in my closet. He dropped his duffel bag to the ground and for the first time, we kissed. I remember feeling how fast his heart was beating through his white t-shirt and thinking how sweet that was. It was surreal, sure, all at once confronted with the physical realities of each other. But, it was also calm and inexplicably familiar and the next twelve days flew by so fast that we only wished for another twelve.

This summer has been hectic and demanding and life has a funny way of making the distance feel even more unbreachable at times. Nevertheless, August 22nd is a special day and as I sit here in his brown button-up, smelling of French perfume and ready for tomorrow’s date over FaceTime, I think of the two people we were that day. Fearless and unwavering in our belief in each other, giddy and excited. Ready, for the first twelve days of many.