Tuesday Night

As I was walking down the cobblestone street, I drew a long breath and slowly let it out. It was so cold that my breath was visible; I shivered and scampered across the street. As I passed the various bars, I peered inside each one, assessing the atmosphere. My plans for the night had already been foiled; I had planned on staying at my hotel and grabbing dinner and a couple of drinks at their bar. However, it had closed early due to it being their off-season. “Story of my life”, I thought to myself and emitted a soft giggle. Now that I had to resort to Plan B, I wanted to make sure that I chose a good place to sit down and have a drink. I was in a strange town, by myself, and wanted to make the most of it. I stopped in front of a local brewery and evaluated their menu. It looked like a laid-back kind of place; just the kind of place I had been looking for. I walked inside and grabbed a seat at the bar.

The pretty bartender gave me an assortment of their different homemade beers to try and once I finally decided on one, I glanced up at the TV and happily saw that the SEC game was on. Within ten minutes, I became engrossed in the game, the beer, and my chips and salsa, tuning the rest of the world out. A guy would occasionally take the seat next to me and I would politely engage them in conversation, but once they realized that I was more interested in the game than them, they strutted back to their table with their group of friends. It wasn’t until a commercial break that I darted my eyes away from the screen and saw a tall, handsome man walking RIGHT TOWARDS ME. He was wearing a red, button-up shirt and jeans. He had the light trace of a five-o-clock shadow and he had the deepest green eyes I’ve ever seen. In fact, my first thought when I saw him was that he reminded me of Luke Bryan (which is one of my ultimate mancrushes, just figured I would put that out there). We locked eyes and I nervously smiled. But once he was within a foot of my seat, he turned to look over his shoulder, turned back, and then kept walking right past me. I turned to the left and watched him walk into the restroom. Feeling slightly stupid and disappointed, I resumed watching the game.

“My friend has been trying to get the balls to come and talk to you for over an hour.”

I snapped my head around, locating the man whose voice I had just heard, and laughed. Not the cute, girly laugh that a female is supposed to master when talking to a guy, but an ugly, uncontrollable fit of laughter. My laughing caused him to start laughing hysterically and before you knew it, we were both bent over laughing our heads off with the entire bar staring at us curiously. Once we composed ourselves, I looked around trying to figure out who his friend was. Understanding what I was doing, he laughed and said “he’s right there”. My eyes followed the direction that his finger was pointing and I was once again looking at the guy who had passed me just a few minutes prior. The look on his face was of either pure shock or horror, I couldn’t really figure out which. At that, I started laughing uncontrollably again and his friend joined in. The guy sat down next to his friend and gaped at the two of us, who hadn’t so much as said three sentences to one another, snickering like the best of friends.

“I missed the punch line. What’s so funny?”

His friend turned to me, looked me up and down, turned back to his friend and says “you’re welcome”. He then gets up and goes back to where they had been sitting, at the other end of the bar.

“I’m Luke. And I think you’re beautiful.” He extended his hand out to me and smiled. (Yes, that beautiful man’s name was, in fact, Luke).

After the few initial awkward moments, we immediately descended into conversation. He had a deep, southern voice that could melt even the most guarded of hearts. Pretty soon, we were laughing and drinking as if we had known each other for ten years. I really found it almost shocking that he thought I was funny and that I could make him genuinely laugh. One of my fatal flaws is that no matter how many times someone tells me that I’m pretty, funny, smart, etc., I’m genuinely surprised when someone agrees. I usually just chalk up one or two compliments to the kindness of people, but when multiple people start to agree with them, it baffles me.

 Our topics of conversation were all over the place; one minute we were talking about where I’m from and the next, we were talking about what animal we would want to be if we could be anything.

“I see you as a bird. You just seem…free.”

I looked down and a light smile formed on my face. My entire life, I had always felt like a bird that people were constantly trying to cage, no matter how many times I escaped. How could this man whom I had just met not even an hour ago, in a strange town, in a strange bar, see right through me? We continued to talk about our lives, our families, our adventures. I found out that he was a good ol’ country boy and seemed to have it all together.

“They don’t make ‘em like you around here. They really don’t.”

I peered up into his eyes and assessed the amount of bullshit he was trying to feed me; I mean, here we were, in a bar, obviously he was just a sweet talker who was trying to use his charm to get what he wanted. But somehow, his kind eyes told a different story. At midnight, the bar we were at was getting ready to close and he turned to me and said “I’m not ready for this night to end just yet. There’s another place right around the corner. Will you come with us?”

I looked at my phone to check the time, looked up at him, then glanced to his friend who was now standing by the door, eagerly waiting for us to follow him. I released a sigh and said “okay, but if you turn out to be a serial killer, there won’t be a second date.” His mouth contorted into a huge smile and he said, through broken laughter, “I think that’s fair enough” and stuck his arm out, prompting me to link mine underneath. That was the first physical contact between the two of us; and it was electric. It seemed as though he felt it too because the second it happened, he gazed down at me, with a look of amazement and trepidation in his eyes. His friend was ahead of us, obnoxiously talking to everyone that passed and Luke just looked down at me and mouthed “I’m sorry”. At that, I let go of his arm and started mimicking his friend, talking and dancing with random strangers as we slowly made our way to the next bar. When we got to the door, I turned around and gave him a “what’re you gonna do?” look. He shook his head and just smiled at me, gawking at my lack of embarrassment and general craziness.  He clutched my hand and I felt whatever was left of my “apathetic and nonchalant act” had gone out the window.

We walked into the country bar and I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere. The lights were low and the music was loud. The song playing when we first walked in cemented the irony we had been experiencing the entire night:  Luke Bryan’s “I Don’t Want This Night To End”. Luke turned to me and whispered “See, it’s meant to be. This is exactly where we’re supposed to be, in this moment”. He let go of my hand and went to order a couple of beers and water for me. We grabbed a table and the three of us talked and laughed and became lost in the music. This is what it felt like to be young, to be invincible. We felt infinite. Luke and I danced, fast and slow, moving along with the beat and sweeping across the dance floor like we were on clouds.

“I’m telling you, I have never seen him like this. It’s like you flipped a switch inside of him or something”.

His friend said this to me in a dumbfounded manner, as if he didn’t understand how this entire night had turned into this. I have to say, I felt the same way. I never dreamed that I would meet a couple of amazing guys in this sleepy town who would make me question so much about everything, the most prominent of those things: life. The bartender announced that the next song would be the last and you should “grab your lover and make it last”. Luke looked down at me and gave a half-smile, but I couldn’t help but notice the light trace of sorrow on his face. As quickly as it had come, the look had been replaced by a wide, white-toothed smile.

“One last dance?”

I took his hand as he led me out to the middle of the floor. Lo and behold, another Luke Bryan song had just begun. At first my eyes became wide with surprise but once I saw his goofy smile, I realized.

“Did you?...”

“Yes, I begged them to play this one. I just wanted it to be perfect.”

I stood there in awe, with my arms around his neck, peering up at him. I have walked this road a long time, alone, with no complaints. Dating has not really been a priority to me, therefore, having this man standing in front of me, tenderly gazing down at me was an amazing and petrifying experience. He had requested “Drunk On You” because he wanted our last moments together to be perfect; he knew it was a favorite song of mine, sung by none other than the country hunk that he reminded me of. I suddenly felt vulnerable, exposed. I rested my head on his chest and took a few breaths, trying to compose myself.

And we danced. With the glow of the candles flickering, our faces lit up just enough for us to see the concoction of emotions in our eyes. It felt as if we were the only ones in the bar, in the world. And all that mattered was this moment, there was nothing else. When the song finally ended, we awkwardly stood there, my hands around his neck, his hands around my waist. After what seemed like an hour, he sighed.

“I guess we better go before they kick us out.”

His friend was standing outside the door, looking at us with a huge grin on his face.

“So when’s the wedding? Are you gonna have it here or in Florida?”

Luke and I laughed nervously, not sure what to say or what to do at this point. I felt as though I was coming down off of a high and suddenly, my whole body felt heavy and my feet felt rooted to the spot.

“Can I give you a ride back to your hotel?”

I looked down at the ground and mumbled, but Luke didn’t pressure me. He said “oh, of course. You’re not from around here, and here you get a creepy guy trying to give you a ride. Smart girl. Can I at least call you a cab?”

My mouth was half-open as I stared at him. I had never experienced this kind of chivalry. Many people might read this and think “that’s not even a big deal”. But to me, as a girl who has drawn the short end of the stick with almost every guy she’s ever dated, it was a huge deal. This man was wanting to call and pay for a cab for me, with nothing in return. I hadn’t slept with him, let alone even KISSED him. At that moment, with all of my emotions swimming around, fear seemed to override all the others. This is what I do. I get close to attaining something good and I run, as fast as I can. I imagined myself suddenly bolting, running down the street like a madwoman, without so much as another word.

Instead, I lightly placed my hand on his cheek and said “Thank you. But no, I’m okay to drive. But seriously…thank you.”

“No, thank you.”

I giggled. “I didn’t do anything”, I said.

“You did. You are an incredible woman. I’m really happy I met you tonight. Can I see you again tomorrow night? Take you on a real date?”

I hesitated. As much as I would have loved to run away with this man at this very moment and never look back, I knew that the timing just wasn’t right. I also wanted to remember tonight just as it was, without anything polluting it thereafter. Also, I feared that if he did see me again, he would finally realize that I’m not all that great, I’m an imposter, and he would tell me that I wasn’t good enough.

“How about this: I might come back out this way tomorrow night. If we happen to run into one another, then maybe it’s fate. Fate has been pretty good to us tonight.”

Luke took a minute to think all of this over. I stood there, anxiously waiting, as though I was waiting for the grade on a big test that I had to take home to my parents. Finally, he smiled.

“I hate that and I love that at the same time. You’re something else, Maureen. I don’t even think there’s a word for it.”

I smiled a toothy grin and turned to his friend and gave him a big hug. I said “if we do have the wedding in the distant future, I want you to officiate”. His friend laughed and picked me up and squeezed me tight. I turned back to Luke and the sorrow on his face was back once again.

“Maybe we’ll see each other again, Luke. You never know in this crazy world.”

“I really hope we do.”

He brushed the hair out of my eyes and leaned down. His lips softly fell on mine as he gave me a sweet, innocent goodbye kiss. Without another word, I smile and turn around. As I’m walking to my car, I can’t contain my excitement and I touch my lips just to be sure that it was real. Before I turn the corner, I take one last glance. He’s standing there, gazing at me with an emotion I’m not quite sure I could figure out. I held my hand up and softly waved to him. And with that, I was gone.

Sitting here now, I can still smell his cologne and hear his booming laughter. Every time I think of him, I can’t help but sit back and smile. What’s he doing at this very moment? Is he thinking of me? Have I already become a distant memory to this man? It’s okay if I have; I’ll carry the memory of that night with me forever. It was the night that my hope in love was reignited. And who knows, maybe one day, years from now, I’ll run into a café to get out of the rain and he’ll be there. Our eyes will meet, a Luke Bryan song will start playing, and we will live happily ever after.

But, until then, we will always have that Tuesday night.