The strangest thing happened to me today. I received some long-awaited closure that I didn't see coming. Let me explain...
About 2 years ago, I was out one night with some friends, when I saw a boy I had been crushing on for years. He works at a local natural foods store that I frequent, but I had never seen him outside of work until then. There he was, in all his tanned skin, golden-haired glory. I had an uncharacteristically ballsy moment and decided to not only go talk to him, but invite him to sit with my friends and me. By the end of the night, he had walked me to my car and asked for my number, weeee!!
We went out for happy hour beers about a week later--nothing crazy, just a casual date at a casual place. We had, what I perceived to be, a wonderful time. Talking, laughing, sharing stories and interests. However, he never called me. I eventually called him a week or two later, and left a breezy message about how I thought we had a great time, but maybe I had misread things, so if he didn't call me back, I would assume he thought I was a total spaz and would move on with my life. It was totally breezy. I never heard back. Not a peep.
I, of course, did not move on with my life immediately, but instead replayed our date over and over again in my head, wondering what I could have possibly done to repel him.
When he asked what my interests were, should I not have said "bugs"?
When he asked what was on my IPOD, should I have lied and said something less lame than Kelly Clarkson, The Pet Shop Boys and a bunch of NPR podcasts?
My friends all decided he was a jerk, but I kept thinking 'I really don't think he is...'
Eventually I did manage to stop dwelling on it and move on, except the once a month or so when I needed something from his store.
Fast forward to this afternoon... I found myself in need of some supplements and hippie shampoo, so off I went. He was the first person I saw as I walked through the sliding door, and he got the same sort of panicked look on his face that he's had every time he's seen me since our fateful date.
I walked down the aisle to get what I had come for, and a few minutes later as I stood pondering which organic, patchouli-scented, beeswax chapstick to spend $3.50 on, he came around the corner. As usual, I gave him an awkward half-smile and immediately looked back down at the shelf, expecting him to turn around and run away. Instead, he came over and said "I really want to apologize for never calling you back that time. It was a really shitty thing to do and I've been carrying it around and feeling guilty about it for 2 years now."
He went on to say that he had been in the midst of a bad break-up, and she had been messing with his head and it was nothing I did, in fact, he thought I was really nice, he just shouldn't have tried to go on a date at that time, yadda, yadda.
I was shocked to say the least, but I accepted his apology and thanked him for not only putting my mind at ease, but for making it so much less uncomfortable to go shopping for beet chips and coconut oil. The moral of this story? Closure does exist, and it could happen to you when you least expect it.
