Here are some links to a few of my favorite people, places and... things.
Soooo I cannot help but LOVE this sunshine today, and of course, with any beautiful sunny day, who doesn't want to roll down the windows and blast a summer-ish playlist, let their hair down, and pretend like they're heading to the beach or lake or pool (whatever body of water relates to you!)?! Just in case you're feelin like I am, here's my playlist for the day! Please enjoy!
Xo,
Em
Kate’s point of view...
I’m not going to lie to myself. I had been wondering about Lucas for the past month. I had wondered where he’d gone, or if he’d gone anywhere. I had wondered if we simply kept crossing paths and missing each other. But, I also wondered why I wondered so much. The day I met him, I had tried so hard to play it cool, to convince myself that I wasn’t interested in the slightest. To my discontent, the more I tried to talk myself out of him, the more I talked myself into him. But, seriously? It had been a month since I’d seen the guy, today was the day to let it go...or so I thought. As I spent the morning walking down Main Street, continuing to talk myself in and out of being interested, my thoughts were abruptly interrupted as I felt someone literally run right into me. I’m sure I looked as if I’d just seen a ghost when I realized it was Lucas. Sensing that I looked a little bit too surprised, I toned it down slightly, which meant pretending like I didn’t recognize him. Then, he acted in a way that I didn’t expect. Just as I had toned it down probably more than I needed to, he went the polar opposite direction and appeared ecstatic that we had run into each other, remembering my name and everything. You can only imagine how this affected my whole “play-it-cool-I’m-not-interested” charade. After he not so subtly showed his excitement, I figured it was okay if I simply acted as if I had just remembered him. Little did I know, this may have appeared a little too forward considering the whole ordeal led to him asking me out to a concert that one of my favorite artists happened to be headlining. Like I said before, I can’t lie to myself...part of me was really excited that he had been so direct, that he had just put himself out there and asked me. It had been quite a while since I’d actually felt pursued. As I walked away with a plan to meet Lucas for the concert of a lifetime on this fine Friday night, I couldn’t help but smile, but not just because I was getting ready to go out for a night of great music, but because I couldn’t help but feel like this might be the start of something beautiful. And with that thought, the song “This” by Ed Sheeran started playing in my head, as if it was playing in the background of a movie about my life, as if everyone could hear it, and they, just like me, were anticipating what would come of this.
Lucas' Point of View
1 MONTH LATER...
Now what? It’s been exactly one month today. One month since what I thought could have possibly been the start of the rest of my life. But how could it have been, seeing as I haven’t seen Kate since that day? Over the past month, I’ve “wandered” into the record shop where she works eight different times, and every time, I’ve missed her. Maybe I read into things. Yeah, that’s exactly what I did. Because ever since that day, everything that could possibly go wrong in my life has gone wrong. In fact, since the moment I left the store that day. Walking back to my car, the owner of Soundroom called me and told me that we were not getting the response from the music world and the public in general that we had hoped for, therefore we were giving the magazine one more issue in order to try and grab their attention one last time. Then, the next day, I woke up only to find that my water was turned off, due to the fact that I forgot to pay the water bill, much less get it out of the mail. And every day since those abnormal couple of days, it’s simply been the little things, like tripping over every single crack in the sidewalk. Or Starbucks messing up my order every time even though I order the same thing every day (as snobby as it sounds, it just added to the list). Or running out of gas...twice. Maybe God was just preparing me for the miserable month ahead by giving me one good day ahead of time. That was the only excuse that I could conjure up, in order to talk myself out of believing that my meeting with Kate was a Divine appointment, a meeting that would lead to more meetings, and meetings that were more than just meetings, a meeting that would lead to time spent together. Or...maybe I’ve just been watching too many chick flicks on cable lately, and I’m starting to become too sensitive. So here I am...walking the streets of downtown Charleston once again...thinking, thinking too much. And just when I begin to convince myself of my own made-up excuse, I trip over yet another sidewalk crack. But this time, I didn’t just trip, I ATE it. As I tried to catch myself, I felt my body jolt against somebody else. Before I even had the guts to look up, I knew it was going to be one of those awkward situations. Mmmm...I’m not a fan of moments like this. Here it goes. I absolutely couldn’t believe it. I had literally just run into Kate. Let me lay it out...it was one of those When Harry Met Sally moments, you know, the moment where they first run into each other again in the airport, five years after their drive to New York together? Except, she was Harry, and I was Sally. Kate and I didn’t exactly spend eighteen hours in a car together, but I couldn’t have forgotten her if I tried. By the look in her eyes, I could tell it wasn’t the same situation for her. Although, strangely enough, I had no feelings of disappointment, I was simply determined. I had waited a month for this moment.
“Kate! Hey!”
“Umm hey...I’m sorry about that, I need to watch where I’m going!”
“No no, not at all, my fault completely...”
I clumsily tried to figure out a way to get her to remember...so I pointed at myself.
“It’s me, Lucas! I came into your shop not too long ago...I bought the Avett Bros. record?”
“Oh yeah! How are you doin’?”
“I’m great, I’m absolutely great!”
I couldn’t help but smile, because everything that I had felt when I had met Kate a month ago came rushing back.
“Good, good,” she replied kindly, “Well, it was good running into you,” she giggled as she said it, and began to walk away. I couldn’t let this moment just pass me by. How do I hold on?
“Kate, wait! I don’t know if you’re into music...well, I guess you are, you work at a record shop...ummm...anyways...I have to go to this concert tonight, it’s this guy named David Ramirez...”
“I LOVE David Ramirez!!!”
“Seriously?! Well, I have to go for work, and I have an extra ticket, so I was wondering if you’d wanna tag along?” She could tell I was struggling.
“Haha, sure, that’d be fun.”
“Awesome! So do you want to meet me at Starbucks, and we can ride together from there?”
“Um...how about I just meet you there? Where is it?”
“Oh yeah! Okay...it’s actually in the building where the offices are that head up the online magazine I work for... the address is 1021 Birdsong Ave....oh! And it starts at 7:00!”
“Great! So I’ll see you at 7?”
“Perfect,” I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. Sure...I had asked her to ‘tag along’, which I totally regret saying...I could’ve just asked her out like a normal person would...and yes, I had asked her to ride with me after just meeting her...it probably seemed awkward. The whole thing probably seemed awkward to her...but the point is that it was happening...I was spending my Friday night with Kate, and that was more than I could ever ask for.
From Lucas’ point of view.
I know it sounds crazy...it sounded crazy to me too, until I actually followed through with the idea. Then it didn’t seem so crazy, it simply seemed Divine, which can sometimes be misconstrued as crazy. This morning I woke up feeling anxious, but not the bad kind of anxious. The kind of anxious that is the sweetest surprise...the kind of anxious that had not yet overcome me several hours before when I first went to sleep, yet came out of nowhere and swept over me this morning. The kind of anxious that tells you, “Ready or not, today holds something beautiful for you, something unexpected, yet something you’ve been waiting for.” Well, to be completely honest, before this moment now, walking down Main Street, treading on the colorful leaves that had recently fallen, breathing in the crisp, Autumn air, the anxiety wasn’t speaking so clearly...all I knew was that I was about to come across something good...it could’ve been anything. I went about my usual morning routine...wake up, brush teeth, throw on clothes, run my fingers through my hair a time or two, and then head out for most of the day. My first stop was Starbucks, of course...at this point, coffee was more of an addiction, rather than an actual aid in keeping me awake, but it was an addiction I didn’t mind sticking to. I quickly made my way to Starbucks, ordered a grande Americano, the regular, and then headed to an outside table to get a little bit of work done. The anxious feeling was still there, and I was impatient to find out what it was for. As I opened up my computer, I pondered what it could possibly be...maybe it had to do with work, maybe I’d finally heard back about the worship leader position that I had been interviewed for. Yeah, that had to be it. As soon as my desktop screen appeared, I scrambled to check my email. To my surprise and slight disappointment, there was no e-mail from the church I had interviewed with. Well then, it must be something else, but what? If you couldn’t tell already, I’d say my biggest weakness is impatience. But it’s also something I’m trying to improve upon, so I did my best to stop wondering and simply live. I work for an online music magazine called Soundroom, actually, I have been graciously made the Editor-in-Chief, so as I sat outside of Starbucks in the middle of downtown Charleston, I did my best to research this week’s charts, check up on the interviews that were scheduled and supposed to be going down, and making sure all of the planned articles were ready for the magazine’s end-of-the-week update. All in all, I spent about three hours laying out this week’s issue and went through two more Americano’s. Work finally came to a close, and I was amped on caffeine, so I decided it was a good idea to take a walk. I had been down Main Street hundred’s, if not thousand’s, of times before, and although on a normal day I would have chosen to walk down Main Street for the 1,001st time, today my feet led me down a side street I had never been down before, Alos St.. There wasn’t much here, but for some reason, my feet kept moving, and my mind wasn’t telling them to stop and go back. Instead, they brought me to the front of a building that had never quite caught my eye. It was a small, white brick house with a red front door that had been converted into a record shop called Into the Mystic, no doubt named after Van Morrison’s hit. Being the music buff that I was, I headed up to the front door and walked inside. A bell rang as I walked inside, and as a result, I heard someone greet me from the front counter. I quickly turned to give a courteous reply, and was caught off guard. Standing behind the counter was a girl about 5 foot 3, with long, strawberry blonde hair, brown eyes, and wearing a vintage Willie Nelson t-shirt. I can’t really explain what took place inside of me the moment I solely laid eyes on her, not in the physical sense, but in a spiritual sense. As cheesy as it’s probably going to sound, it was as if God had literally placed a giant neon arrow sign pointing down from heaven right above her head, as if to say, “This is it! This is what you’ve been waiting for not only all day, but all your life! This is her!” I’ve had people tell me that it took years of dating to figure out that the person they’re married to now was the person they were supposed to marry. I’ve also had people tell me that they met and got engaged within a month. So the reality of it is, I really had no clue up until this point what it would be like or how it would feel to just know. Well, now I knew. I was a mess as I made an attempt to talk to her. She asked if she could help me with anything, and the quickest thing I could think of were the charts I had been staring down for the past three hours. The first thing that popped in my mind was the Avett Brothers. Their new album had been on repeat in my car for the past two weeks and they had just peaked at number two on the Billboard Folk Album chart. Therefore, in the two seconds I had to figure out what I was going to say, I concluded that that was a good start. She led me over to the section of vinyl that they carried and quickly pulled out a vinyl copy of The Carpenter, then led me back to the counter to pay. Although she was quiet and really good at averting eye contact along with the conversation I was trying to make, I knew that she wasn’t just anybody. I was overcome with a desire to know this girl no matter what it took. Like I said before, it sounds crazy considering I’d never seen her in my life, but like I said before, sometimes Divine appointments are confused with craziness. I walked out of the shop knowing that I had found, or rather, been led to the ‘something good’ that I woke up hoping to find. It, or rather, she, was a girl named Kate.
“I’ll be waiting for you.” Yes...those were the very last words I wrote down before this mysteriously familiar stranger walked out of the outside world into our humble abode of a record shop. But that was pure coincidence...wasn’t it? To be completely honest, I’m not even sure most people knew this place existed. We were so far off to the side of the Main Street of our small town, most people didn’t even think to wander in our general direction. But for some reason, today, he did...coincidence or not, there was something Divine about it. As I kept my eyes on the surface of the front counter, my thoughts drowning me, his voice interrupted. “‘Scuse me...do you know if you’ve got the new Avett Brothers album?” I looked up, shocked at the chills that his smile alone caused to run down my spine. There was such a warmth, a kindness in his voice...he continued on, speaking with a smile in his voice. “Actually, I’m being really picky...I’m looking for it on vinyl...you think you’ve got it?” I’ve met this road before...I’ve been charmed, I’ve been swept off my feet in a matter of seconds...it was NOT going to happen today. Not again after everything I just went through. Quickly, I cleared my head and responded, genuinely letting every thought I had just encountered go. “I’ll check for ya!” As I made my way to the ‘Folk Rock’ section of our store, I became uneasy as he followed closely behind. He could’ve simply waited at the counter, but I didn’t want to sound rude by sending him back, so I simply let him continue on behind me. In a cool and collected manner, I flipped through the “A”’s and pulled out our last vinyl copy of The Carpenter, the Avett Brothers latest album...I bought it the day we got it in. I handed it over to him, proud that I’d found exactly what he was looking for. “Ahhh no way! It’s actually in my hands!” I couldn’t help but giggle a little bit at his excitement. “Haha, sorry, I’ve been really stoked on vinyl lately, and they’re one of my favorite bands...I wasn’t expecting to find it here, so it’s a good day.” What did he mean by he didn’t think he’d find it here? I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’ve grown to love where I work and the people I work with, and even though he didn’t mean it as a dig, I kind of took it like one. “What do you mean you didn’t think you’d find it here? You knoooww...we are the best record shop in town, but a lot of people don’t know that. A lot of people don’t even know we exist,” I tried to leave a hint of joking in my voice. “Well I’m sure glad I found you,” he replied, “the store! I’m glad I found the store.” It was a sweet slip-up, but I forced myself not to blush, “Yeah, for sure...well um...let me just check you out...” seriously? I just said that. “I mean, I can ring you up...not on the phone! The cash register...so you can pay...yep.” Ok...now I was blushing. Not because I was flattered, but because by trying to act as nonchalant and unimpressed as possible, I simply just made myself seem more aware of myself than I intended to seem, which therefore made me seem impressed and completely concerned about the entire scenario playing out before the two of us. As I made my shameful walk to the register, I could sense him watching me...not in a creepy way, just in an observant way, or so it seemed. It seems I was right, because as I began to ring him up and hand him his vinyl, he subtly said, “I don’t think I caught your name,” to which I replied coyly, “Well I didn’t give you one.” He could see the slight grin on my face, and decided to play along.
“Well I have a proposition for you...”
“Really now?”
“Yeah...how about if I give you my name, you give me yours?”
“Haha...smooth!”
“Haha, cheesy, I know...my name is Lucas...you can do with it what you will.”
He gave a playful grin and patiently waited for some sort of reply. “Alright, you got me...I’m Kate. But there’s really not much you can do with a name now, is there?” “Well I can know what to call you next time I see you,” he seemed to have a good reply for everything. “Is there gonna be a next time?” I asked, somewhat surprised by his forwardness. “I sure hope so,” he smiled and turned to walk out the door. As he walked back to the beautiful day outside, he turned around one last time. “See you soon then, Kate.”
Emily Reeves