As I walked toward the door, a man walking toward me accidentally bumped into me. “I’m sorry,” he said. We shook hands, and I introduced myself. He asked where I was from, and I told him. “You’re not far from where I live,” he said. He was from a small town nearby. We talked for a while, and I asked him to have a drink with me.
“I don’t drink,” he said.
I was so shocked, I dropped my purse and my keys and had to pick them up. I don’t drink, either, but I would have had a drink with this man, this stranger. “That’s OK,” I said.
“I don’t know,” he said, and he seemed a little uncomfortable.
“It’s not a test,” I said. “I don’t care if you drink.”
“Well, in that case, I’ll have a glass of water.”
From Affair to Eternity
The following is a New York Times Modern Love column about a woman named Frances, her husband Dean, and the unlikely story of how they first met:
I was a single mother when I first met Dean, and he was a married man. We met at a bar in Brooklyn, where I was celebrating my 31st birthday with friends. I spotted him across the room, and he was looking at me, too. I was wearing a black dress, and I remember thinking, “This is the one I’m going to marry.”
He was with a group of his friends, and he came over to say hello. I told him I was a writer, and he told me he was a writer, too. We got along immediately. I asked if he would read something I’d written, and he said, “Sure, I’ll read anything you want.”
We talked until the bar closed. I walked him to his car and asked for his phone number.
He said, “I’m married.”
“I’m married, too,” I said.
“I’ll call you,” he said.
“I’ll wait,” I said.
He called the next day. We went out for lunch. We went out for dinner. We went out for drinks. We went out for dinner again. We went out for drinks again. We went out for dinner and drinks again. We went out for dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and dinner and drinks and
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