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Lena is walking down the street, moving away from the festivities that have been taking place all day long. People have been celebrating equal rights, which is good and she quite enjoyed it despite being alone, but now she’s tired and looking to go home. The night will fall soon and she prefers to be relaxed at home, a candle or two as she takes a warm bath, to slip in her silk robe afterwards and enjoy a glass of wine as she watches a movie.
She is about to cross the street when someone suddenly taps her shoulder. Turning around, she faces a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes, who appears to be out of breath. She can see that her hair is tousled and something tells her this woman has been running. The woman doesn’t look familiar to her in any way, plus nothing indicates that she would have dropped something. Why this young woman tapped her shoulder to gain her attention is a question she doesn’t have an answer to. She raises her perfectly manicured left eyebrow, waiting to hear what the young woman has to say or ask.
“I hate to bother you,” the young woman says, her cheeks red while panting. “But this is important. Someone had a shock collar on their dog’s neck and I felt like that was incredibly cruel because the dog was clearly in pain and he wasn’t even doing anything wrong, so I took it off and placed it around the owner’s neck. Then I sort of shocked the owner so he’d know what it feels like when he does that to his dog. Now the cops are chasing after me and I know this is really weird because you don’t know me at all, but please just go with it.”
Lena is about to open her mouth to say something to this beautiful young woman who rambled to her in an adorable way, but then said woman pushes her against the brick wall of the building behind her and kisses her. She freezes and when the young woman steps back, she sees her freezing too, although for another reason.
“Excuse us, ladies,” a police officer says politely as he approaches them.
Lena wonders if the young woman is going to move at all, who is standing with her back towards the two police officers that are looking at them. “Yes, officer?” she asks politely.
“We are looking for a young lady with blonde hair,” the other police officer answers. “She ran in this direction,” he explains as he gestures around the street.
“A young lady with blonde hair,” Lena muses. “I am afraid that is not very specific,” she says to the police officers, who are now stepping closer. It’s not to be rude or to sass them in any way, it’s simply the truth that a description like that is hardly anything to go by, surely the police officers must realize that as well.
“Ma’am,” the first police officer says, tapping the young woman onto her shoulder.
Lena watches how a flash of panic passes through the young woman’s eyes, but then the young woman suddenly whips her head around with a bright smile on her face, apparently no longer frozen in place. It’s interesting to her how the young woman shifts between awkward and confident.
“Unfortunately we haven’t seen anyone running by,” the young woman says to the police officers. “My uh, wife and I..,” she continues, taking a hold of Lena’s hand. “We…”
“We are on our way home,” Lena says, filling in the blanks for the intriguing young woman who is holding her hand. “My wife and I are celebrating our two year anniversary,” she explains with a smile to match the young woman’s smile.
“Yes,” the young woman chimes in, smiling impossibly brighter. “We’ve been so caught up in each other that we haven’t been paying attention to other people,” she explains while making eye-contact with Lena.
Lena isn’t quite sure if that smile on the young woman’s face is nothing but a decoy for the police officers to buy into this lie or if it’s a smile that’s actually meant for her. Something tells her that mesmerizing smile is addressed to her personally, given the twinkle in the young woman’s eyes. They’re strangers and yet the young woman looks at her as if she’s been waking up to her face every morning for years. She can’t recall anyone else in her life ever having looked at her like that with such purity and passion.
“Congratulations on your anniversary,” one of the police officers says, giving them a short nod. “Our apologies for the intrusion.”
“I hope you find who you are looking for,” Lena says with a genuine tone in her voice. “Have a good day, officers.” She intertwines her fingers with the young woman’s fingers as she continues her walk, noticing how the police officers disperse.
“Thank you soooo much,” the young woman says when they enter a different street. “My sister would have killed me if the cops would have taken me. I don’t know why you helped me, but you did and that’s so sweet and I know I caught you off guard when I kissed you, but I wanted to make it seem like we’re together, because the witnesses saw me by myself so that’s why. And I saw you walking around alone and you kind of totally caught my eye, um, not in a weird way though and oh wow, I’m totally rambling here.”
Lena chuckles, finding it quite endearing how the young woman rambles, not minding it at all. “You are welcome...,” she replies, pausing since she doesn’t know the young woman’s name.
“Kara,” the young woman says quickly. “My name is Kara,” she says, flashing a nervous smile.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Kara,” Lena says earnestly. “My name is Lena.”
“You’re so pretty,” Kara blurts out. “I mean um…”
“You are quite the mystery, Kara,” Lena comments amusingly. “Do you always walk up to total strangers, kiss them and then get completely flustered and shy?”
“No, no!” Kara answers fast, nervously tucking her hair behind her ears. “With me have dinner will you?” she rambles. “I mean, will you have dinner with me?”
Lena can’t even be annoyed in the slightest that this beautiful stranger kissed her out of nowhere, because it’s just too precious how adorable Kara is and she doesn’t blame her for what she did. Being an animal lover herself, she also, can’t stand the cruelty of shock collars. “Yes,” she answers, captivated by the way the young woman’s face lights up. “I will have dinner with you.”
Kara squeals and jumps up and down. “You won’t regret this, Lena!” she shouts happily.
Lena has a positive feeling that Kara is right. She had no idea that her lonely day, wandering around, would turn out like this. After the years she has been alone, she didn’t expect someone so bubbly, bright and lively would walk up to her, out of all people. When Kara gives her hand a subtle squeeze, she knows that yes, she won’t regret this.
And that’s how Lena met her wife.