Day
#2: The One That Got Away
You
bump into an ex-lover on Valentine’s Day – the one whom you often call “The One
That Got Away”. What happens?
Kelly
Sanchez was all about the ‘usual’. Usual coffee, usual route to work, usual
lunch break, usual life. Nearly everything about her life was predictable and
safe, right down to the mousey brown color of her hair and her meticulous
selection of clothing – dark wash jeans, white t-shirt and navy blazer.
Everything you’d expect from a 20-something, successful, smart, attractive
young woman living in the city. Everything was usual about that day. Except, of
course, when she ran into Kevin outside of a Source Adult Video Store.
Let’s
go back a bit. She wasn’t inside the
adult video store. In fact, since her daily walk to work passed her by the
glaring eyesore, she usually opted to cross the street and walk on the opposite
side of the street, crossing back over again when she was safely past the
sexual recreation depot. On this day, however, she was running late. A
predicament that she hardly found herself in, being a punctual and prideful
person, yet was caused by a late night at the bar with her good friend,
Christina. Kelly had one too many of her favorite Tootsie Roll cocktail – a
mixture of Root Beer and Kahlua – and as a result, slept past her alarm clock
by an entire 10 minutes.
To
explain Kevin, in a nutshell, would be to describe a pseudo-Italian hipster
complete with slouchy toque, skinny jeans, long board, grubby beard and glasses
so large and so obviously lacking lenses one would wonder as to their purpose.
Kevin personified hipster in a way that few other teenie-bopping 14 year olds
could hardly grasp. They thought it was all about the look. For Kevin, it was a
way of life. He proudly boycotted corporations, sneered at mass consumerism,
worshipped indie-rock and took a stand for animal rights. He ate vegan and
dressed dumpster. Relationship wise, Kevin wasn’t necessarily what you would
call the crowning jewel to gush to your parents about.
Kelly
and Kevin met at a vegan brunch restaurant called ‘The Starving Artist’. At the
time, Kevin was into Kelly and made it very obvious. Kelly, on the other hand,
had made an automatic decision that she later began to regret. She turned him
down. She saw him as he was, unemployed, unshowered, unattractive. After she
made it very clear to him that she
would have nothing to do with him, he had shrugged and good-naturedly bid her
‘adieu’. No, seriously, he said “Addio, dolce signora.” Maybe it was the
halting Italian accent, maybe it was the indifference to her rejection, but
Kelly immediately regretted her decision.
It seemed like a good
idea at the time.
She
had tried fruitlessly to track him down, but having nothing but a name and a
vague description that matched nearly 10,000 teenage boys in the metropolitan
area, her search came up empty. She vowed, buzzed on Tootsie Roll martinis,
that she would never love again.
What
Kelly was experiencing was akin to can’t-have-it-so-you-desperately-want-it
syndrome. It’s a common condition many young women suffer from. For a lack of
options, women tend to regress to any prior love-interest, regardless of any
glaring faux pas’. This is a safe resort to facing the music and accepting
solitude.
Kevin
was constantly the name uttered on her lips, and her friends soon grew tired of
trying to make her see the obvious and simply rolled their eyes whenever it
came up. They had hoped that the sheer impossibility of the two ever meeting
again would render Kelly’s poor judgment skills null and hence, not worth
worrying about.
Yet
when Kelly saw Kevin outside of that adult video store, her heart swooned and
soared. She forgot all about being punctual, all about work and all about the
extensive list of reasons her and Kevin were just not a good match.
His oversized glasses suddenly made his eyes
look large and dreamy.
His slouchy toque no
doubt covered a rich head full of creamy brown locks.
His skinny jeans
contoured the strong calves of his legs, obviously toned from mountain hikes to
watch the sunrise.
His beard had a rugged,
Brad Pitt look-a-like feel. His scent, just as manly and rugged.
Kelly stopped in her
tracks while watching in dull amazement as he turned down the opposite street
and walked away, whistling The Sex Pistols, his recently purchased plastic
black bag swinging as if it contained nothing more than a harmless stuffed
teddy bear. Oblivious to the sparks so carelessly shooting from Kelly’s eyes,
Kevin walked in and out of Kelly’s life yet again and just as swiftly as
before.
That day, Kelly entered
into a resolve. She would wait every morning outside of the adult video store
and await her love.
It seemed like a good
idea at the time.
Lucky for Kelly, she
didn’t need to wait long. Her friends hardly had time to break the spell that
held her so viciously in its’ grasp. A few mornings later, whistling the same
irritating tune – yet, somehow melodious to Kelly’s ears – Kevin exited the
adult video store in the company of yet another plastic black bag.
Kelly’s heart thumped
inside her chest – the moment was now, the moment she had been waiting for all
her life – she was about to meet her true love and confess the love which she
had for him. No doubt, he would confess the same and would carry her off to
live a simple, uncomplicated life together in the country. He would feed her
organic grapes, serenade her with his ukulele in his awe-inspiring Italian
accent, and grow a little garden patch in his back yard.
“K-k-kevin?” Kelly
ventured tenuously.
Kevin swung about
nervously, clearly perturbed at being caught in a personal, weekly ritual. He
eyed Kelly up and down and uttered a, “Yeah?”
“I’m in love with you!”
Kelly blurted out.
It seemed like a good idea
at the time.
“Uh…” Kevin looked
perplexed. “Do I know you, lady?”
“It’s Kelly! From
brunch – the other day? Well, it wasn’t the other day it was actually three
months ago but of course you remember I was eating eggs benedict and you said
how much you liked eggs benny I’ve never heard anybody call it that it was sooo
funny you are so funny Kevin anyway you asked me out and I was so stupid back
then and I was going through some stuff at work and whatever but that doesn’t
matter because I realized my mistake and that I love you!”
It seemed like a good
idea at the time.
Eyeing her up once
more, Kevin slid over to her smoothly. “Ah, si, dolce signora, I remember.” He
swung his arm around her shoulders and caressed her cheek.
Kelly’s nose registered
the pungent odor of him as he led her down the street. ‘I just caught him at a
bad time,’ Kelly justified to herself, ‘I’m hardly at my best in the morning!
Wait – is that egg in his beard? Omg, what is that stain on his shirt?” Kevin
offered her to share an earbud with him – she could already hear the blaring
indie-punk rock music blaring from the headphones – and she politely refused,
mildly horrified.
“Hey, wanna head back to my place and watch
this movie I just bought?”
What had seemed like a
good idea at the time had, actually, been a horrible idea in reality.
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