The Jean Jacket Story

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The story of the jean jacket isn’t really so much a story, at least not one most people would find interesting or important, as it was just a fleeting moment. A brief encounter when two strangers passed each other on a dark street, not knowing then that they would someday fall in love and share a life together.

Stephen sometimes likes to remind me of the night we met. It always starts the same, “you were wearing a jean jacket”, he says. Out of all the details, it amuses me that this what he remembered most. Whereas I just remember his cheeky smile. It’s true I had been wearing a jacket—something I had thrown on as an afterthought as I headed out for an evening with friends, along with a splash of perfume and some old biker boots. It was a Friday night and my brain was fried from a long week of classes. I had decided to walk down the hill instead of drive with the rest of the group because I found Monterey’s cold salty air refreshing and it gave me a chance to collect my thoughts.

It was  pitch-black save the lonely orange glow of the streetlights. I never really worried about being bothered though since most of the people in this quiet North Californian town were either elderly or military. I saw him in the distance, walking along with Jake and as he approached I recognized Stephen as the cute guy from class. I think I would have just walked on past him had he not stopped me with a cheerful hello. We chatted and he teased me when I said I was going to hang out with friends.

“Do you really have friends?”

I was never good with small talk, especially with new people. Looking back, I wonder how differently life could have gone had Stephen not made that extra effort to get me to open up. To this day I am amazed he wasn’t deterred by all the times he said good morning in an attempt to get to know me and I would say “F**k you” in reply. Not because I didn’t think he was adorable, sweet and charming but because I was more than a little scared. Probably because deep down I knew, even then, that if I let him into my life I was going to fall in love. And that would be it, I would be a total goner.

And so as the story would someday unfold, yeah, you could say I’m smitten.