Amedeo’s Grand Romance

As I had done for the past few days, I arrived early to the coffee shop. My watch read 8:50. It was an unusually warm day and the sun had already been up for quite some time. There was a slight breeze, but it did little to relieve the heat and humidity that permeated my clothes and hair from my shower earlier that morning. I ordered an iced latte, paid quickly, and sat down at a table in the back of the shop where I could keep an eye on the entrance. No one else in the building would be joining me today. At least not until 9:30 when Andrea walked in.

I had known Andrea since high school. We were close friends growing up and remained close after he went off to college while I stayed home with my parents. After college, he moved away to New York City where he worked as a personal assistant for one of his father's business partners. I knew nothing about what that meant exactly, but based on what he said it sounded like he spent most of his days going out drinking with his boss and making some kind of effort to make his boss' life more efficient or whatever it is people who have assistants do. A few months ago, Andrea called me out of the blue asking if I could take him out to dinner. He told me he was in town visiting family and wanted to catch up with an old friend.

That night was no different than any other we'd spent together over the years--we ate at The Blue Olive, talked about girls we liked or didn't like or just made fun of each other--but something about the experience was different for me. Maybe it was because we hadn't seen each other in so long or maybe it was because we were both getting older now, but something about that night felt...significant (what a cheesy word). Afterwards, as we were walking to our cars, Andrea stopped short and turned towards me with a serious look on his face like he had an important question to ask me or something equally important to tell me. But before he could say anything, I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the lips just like that scene in "When Harry Met Sally." He looked surprised at first and then laughed. As we parted ways after giving each other a fake bro hug, he winked at me and smiled big saying something along the lines of how good it was to see me again and how nice it was to be able to spend time together again like this before getting into his rental car and driving off.

When I got home that night after dropping off my car at my house, I checked my voicemail expecting there would be one from my mom wondering why I didn't pick up any groceries for her or something like that, but there wasn't. Instead, there was a message from Andrea telling me he had a great time seeing me again and hoped we could do it again soon before leaving his phone number so we could set up another date sometime soon before signing off with another "nice seeing you again!" smiley face emoji followed by three kissy faces.

The next day began like any other until around 3:00 in the afternoon when my phone rang showing Andrea's name on caller ID. Without thinking much about it, I answered right away assuming it would be him apologizing for missing our lunch plans later that day (we were supposed to meet up at The Blue Olive) or something like that given how last night ended with us leaving on such good terms. When I picked up, though, all I heard was silence through the receiver followed by a deep breath being exhaled into my ear before Andrea finally spoke saying "Can you give me a ride?"

"Sure," I answered confusedly "where are you?"

"I'm outside your house."

"Oh, ok," I replied surprised "I'll be there in two minutes."