The wind is blowing intermittently on the windows of the cab as wave after wave of rain assaults the city. The late autumnal rainstorm mercilessly beats passersby with a fury that only an October wind in New York can. It is no small amount of hesitation and reluctance that creeps into your stomach like an icy drink as you near your destination. Not only must you brave the elements, but the uncertainty of what the night holds for you taunts you as well.
With a sigh, another false front of bravery you open the door and your umbrella, scurry across the sidewalk and cross an invisible boundary of the building. The numbness in your stomach returns, your eyes widen, and as you enter the building's lobby your mind returns once again to anxious uncertainty.
Head held high you walk confidently towards the elevator, a myriad of questions running through your mind all at once. Can love be found first by the heart and only afterwards by the eye? Can you love someone you've never held? Miss someone you've never seen? How else can you explain the persistent flutter in your heart, or the sleepless moments lying all alone in your bed at night wondering about moments such as these?
Without warning, the elevator doors open and you turn down the hall, seeing the door behind which rests your fate for the evening, and perhaps longer. You walk quietly, tentatively down the hall to the door, counting the apartment numbers softly to yourself as you pass. When your eyes can begin to discern the number you've written down, and imagined these many weeks and months, you pause.
Breaths become shallow, and you raise your hand to knock on the door, and then stop just before your fingers rap. You lean forward to listen. Hearing nothing you frown slightly, then knock. You hear footsteps and thenβ¦the door swings open and you're suddenly confronted with what you've imagined for months.
"Hello, come in," he says to you as he ushers you inside. You spend several moments just looking at him, soaking in the details of his face, smile, eyes, and forehead. You hardly notice he is doing the same with you.