In late 2001, a boy invited me to dinner. I obliged, always looking for adventure. We walked to his red two seater. As I got into the front seat, he pulled a box from the backseat and handed it to me. I gasped in happiness. “Donuts,” I said and put the Krispy Kreme box back down in the backseat. “You know exactly what I like! But better not to spoil our appetite.”<\/p>\n
“Open it!” he said.<\/p>\n
I lifted the box and peered inside. Puzzled at first as it was not round and sweet and tasty. A bouquet of my favorite flowers laid in the white box. Calla lily. A thought flew across my mind that he must have remembered that I mentioned it once. What I didn’t know at that moment was that I was going to dislike. I knew what the gesture meant, so I turned to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Hiding my disappointment, I forced a smile and said, “Wow, thank you! You got my favorite flower!”<\/p>\n
“I knew that you would love it!” he said and turned the key.<\/p>\n
The car roared to life, and the entire evening, I wanted the glazed donuts.<\/p>\n
What I didn’t know was that less than 2 weeks later, I would break up with him, not just because of the donuts, but because of so many things. What I also didn’t know was that I would establish a lifelong rule of “no flowers”. “They die,” I say.<\/p>\n
But I would bite my lip when they did arrive, knowing the thoughtfulness intended.<\/p>\n
“Calla lilies were my last favorite flower,” I said to a friend as we took a loop around the park.<\/p>\n
We idly glanced at the hipster stores along 18th street and the crowd forming along the major food stops. It was the day before Valentine’s Day. I related the story of the boy. “I suppose that I was more upset that he didn’t know me,” I said.<\/p>\n
“Well, that was traumatic for you,” my friend said. “You were only 19.”<\/p>\n
“I was.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In late 2001, a boy invited me to dinner. I obliged, always looking for adventure. We walked to his red two seater. As I got into the front seat, he pulled a box from the backseat and handed it to … Continue reading