4 Love Notes for a Rainy Afternoon

Four notes make up this collection. The number on the envelope artwork represents the four published pieces below, not unread messages in a personal inbox.

1. Under the umbrella

Our umbrella is never quite wide enough in this imagined scene. One shoulder gets wet, then the other, as we keep offering each other the dry side. We arrive laughing at the unfair geometry of it. I like a love story that has room for wet socks and a slightly bent umbrella.

2. The kitchen window

Rain makes the kitchen window look like an unfinished painting. I am making something simple for lunch, and you are reading the instructions on a packet neither of us really needs instructions for. There is a particular happiness in doing very little beside someone you like. Nobody has to call it an occasion.

3. The long way home

The shortcut is flooded, so we take the longer road. We discover a blue gate, a shop we have never noticed, and a cat making excellent use of a sheltered doorstep. I would not order bad weather just for a walk with you. But since it is here, I am glad of the extra ten minutes.

4. After the rain

When the clouds finally loosen their grip on the afternoon, the whole street seems freshly drawn. We open the door and stand there without deciding where to go. This note ends before the next adventure. Its happy part is the pause: two people with a little time, dry coats, and no particular hurry.

A note about this reading

All four scenes are fictional. They are offered as a complete public collection of romantic writing, not as a record of events involving the reader.