The craziest stuff only happens when you aren’t prepared, that’s how life works. Take me, for example, while I was in San Francisco, just minding my business in a really cool art exhibit that had live butterflies in a special room. I was wandering around, with my butterfly overalls and sun shirt on, admiring the butterflies, when I accidentally dropped a piece of fruit the staff had given me to attract the butterflies. I stopped walking, carefully checked the ground, then gently reached for the banana piece to add it back to my plate. Before I could reach it though, another hand picked it up and placed the banana into my hand, followed by a calm voice asking, “Are you ok?” I stood back up and looked up into a set of friendly eyes, then replied, “Yes, I’m just clumsy.” I smiled and watched to see how the stranger would react- he smiled too and agreed that he was also clumsy, so he understood.
He asked if I had planned to match the butterflies with my outfit, or if I just accidentally did, which made me laugh as I responded, “It was a total accident! I packed these pants because they are lightweight and perfect for the hot weather, but then I wandered around the city and found this art exhibit and could not pass it up! I love butterflies!” He fed off my positivity and said, “That makes sense. This place is not very popular, so it’s perfect for me because I want to avoid crowds and being near lots of people.” I pretended to understand and nodded, then put the banana piece on my plate and carefully walked towards one of the brick sitting areas they had surrounding the bushes for the butterflies to land on. I saw wipes for cleaning your hands and had just turned towards one of the container stations when the stranger beat me to it, grabbed a wipe, and quickly crossed the walkway back to me. He asked for my hand, so I held it out and he carefully cleaned my palm where the sticky banana had been sitting.
It was clear by the way he was almost afraid to touch me that he had never cleaned a girl’s hand before, so I giggled and tried to hide it, but he looked up and saw my eyes, then asked what was so funny. I waited for him to put the used wipe into the trash can and return, then I answered, “I’m sorry for laughing, but it was just so funny how you wiped my hand as if it would melt or break if you touched me too harshly. It was adorable and I tried to hide my giggle from you, which I clearly did not do well.” I looked up into his face, realized how much taller he was than me, then looked down at the ground, afraid he was going to be angry with me. He sighed and replied, “I didn’t realize my lack of social skills would be that obvious, but I suppose it makes sense, since I rarely have the opportunity to interact with females due to my job.”
I stared at the ground harder, waiting for him to walk away, but instead, I felt his hand gently lift my chin until I was looking into his eyes once more, then he commented, “I could never be angry with you, if that’s what you were thinking a moment ago.” I was shocked, which caused him to laugh, since my face cannot hide any emotion. My cheeks caught fire and I bit my bottom lip, so embarrassed, but it was too late now- he had already seen and I knew he was going to ask questions. Sure enough, a second later, I felt his hand touch my burning cheek and ask, “Why are you blushing? Did I do something wrong? Have I upset you in some way?” I took a few seconds, forced myself to focus on my breathing, then whispered, “No, you didn’t do anything wrong at all. I just thought you were going to be angry with me, so I got embarrassed when you forced me to look at you again. I can never hide my emotions, and I was worried you would be offended somehow.”
He smiled, then reached his hand down to hold one of my hands, gave it a squeeze, and said softly, “It’s not a bad thing at all to share your feelings with the world and I would even argue that in my case, it’s a huge help because I sometimes have a hard time understanding other languages. Now I know you will always be honest with me and that is very valuable these days.” I smiled and nodded, then pointed to the fruit plate I had set down, not wanting to give up my butterfly encounters yet. He laughed and pulled my hand back over to the place we had been, then let go and watched me for a few minutes. I was just standing still, holding my plate in front of me, when a butterfly landed right on my head! His eyes got wide and he started silently exclaiming random whisper words, while pointing to my head, which caused me to giggle again, then he reached for his phone and by the time he had the camera ready, another one had landed on my head, so now he was officially freaking out. I tried to hold still, but he was ten times more excited than I was, so it was hard not to react to his energy at that moment.
After he had snapped the photo, he showed me, so then I understood why he was so excited! I waited for them to fly off, then I stepped closer to the bushes and reached out to find one that was not afraid of humans. When I found one, I gently placed it on his head, but I had to use my tippy-toes to reach and he tried silent laughing… I lost my balance, he caught me, then I got super embarrassed when I realized he was inches away from my face… He smiled and leaned his forehead on mine, then whispered, “I have never met anyone like you in my entire life.”
I took that as a bad thing, so I felt tears well up in my eyes as I bit my bottom lip, then noticed his face change from happy to concern without a single word. The butterfly had flown away already as he held my face in his hands, saying, “Why are you so upset with me?” I knew if I tried to speak the tears would spill over, so I simply shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. He was confused now, so he let go and reached for my hand, guiding me over to the brick sitting wall. He found a clear spot and sat down, then pulled me right next to him, his face searching mine for some sort of explanation. I tried looking away, taking a deep breath, and even searched the ceiling skylights for inspiration, but nothing helped. Finally, he turned my face towards his and asked, “How can you be so cute all the time?”
His question caught me off guard, so I blinked, which shifted my face just enough to make him smile. “I wasn’t upset with you- I was upset with myself for being so clumsy and then for being ready to cry when nothing really went wrong. I am sorry.” He held one of my hands and rubbed the top of it as he replied, “I like it when you need to be rescued and I hope I get to rescue you a lot more in the future. It makes it easier for me to be close to you. I hope I’m not being too bold right now, but I find you very attractive and can’t seem to think of anything else at the moment. You are very addictive.”
I literally had no words- I was too stunned to respond, which he noticed and laughed about, then kissed the top of my hand and pulled me into a giant hug. Having a moment to hide my face in his neck while he just squeezed me tightly was honestly the best part of my day. I somehow knew I could trust him, even though I didn’t even know his name yet. He was so tall that his cheek could rest on the top of my head, so he was enjoying sneaking me little kisses and then started whispering, “I like holding you. You smell good. You are cute and soft. I like how tiny you are with me. Please give me a chance. I promise to earn your trust. I will always treat you with love and respect.”
