Chapter 21 - On a cold winter's night

One thing I'll always love about Paris is the closing time at bars. When it's time to go, it's time to go, and quickly the street fills up with the patrons of the night.

This time around, I found myself amongst friends of friends, and after a quick exchange with one man in particular and then a declaration that I had to head home, he offered me one of his gloves. He told me to return it to him the next time we saw one another.

I left it at home the first day I had it. I was fearful that I might lose it.

I carried it on the second day though, in the hopes that perhaps I'd see him later in the night, once I got out of work.

And I did.

We spoke during the day and made plans to see one another late in the evening, at the same bar we had met at. He waited for me outside the bar, in the once again freezing Parisian air. As I made my way to meet him from work, he sent me numerous texts about how cold it was outside, and how cold his hand was. I laughed my whole way there.

When we met up, I quickly handed over the glove, which he then promptly put on, and we headed in for a quick drink.

Three drinks later, we were back out on the street. Closing time strikes again.

For over an hour, he and I sat in a window sill in the cold, talking, smoking cigarettes, and laughing. And then we kissed, and everything was still.

I had known that I would kiss him by the end of the night. Earlier, as we were packing up our belongings as we headed out of the bar, I picked up his jacket and gloves to hand to him, upon which moment I discovered that he had 2 different gloves in fact. When I asked him about it, he admitted that he had in fact lost the match to the one I had, later the same night that he had given me mine. But he knew he had to come with one glove, so he picked the closest glove he could find.

Not to mention, the one he wore to meet me didn't remotely look like the one I had.

Ah, funny how things just kind of happen...