One time this happened...

My fingers slipped on the keyboard, sending the lyrics of our song back onto the screen and erasing my hastily written confession. It was a little poem, barely a page long, and yet my stomach dropped every time I considered submitting it – a plea for Emily to meet me for coffee, to see if the spark from our awkward first date would magically kindle into flames.

My cat, Nova, has been staring at me for 23 minutes now as I nervously practice my pickup line in the mirror - it's a cheesy pun my friend swears will work. 'Want to be my lab partner in love?' I try it out loud, making eye contact with the feline judge who's clearly not impressed; she gives the equivalent of a single shrug.

Fog from our collective breath condensed on the café windows as I waited for the date I'd spent an hour picking socks to match. My gaze drifted toward the couple arguing hushed voices in the corner – their hands were perfectly entwined, yet their body language screamed for a divorce attorney.

The first time I wore heels, I think I accidentally stepped on my date's toe, he told me later, which was either a clever way of saying it wasn't entirely my fault or a desperate coping mechanism. At the time, my knee jarring his foot was just part of the grand gesture, the swishy entrance, the loud clatter of me attempting to balance in a pair too small.

My grandmother had a velvet-padded chair for unwelcome guests, and I found myself wondering if my date would ever fit that description after he offered to critique my haircut during our third conversation online – he'd asked me out before realizing his enthusiasm was actually an awkward way of asking.

Fog had begun seeping in through my office window like a damp ex-wife and suddenly I remembered the girl from the coffee shop who'd stared so intensely at her phone it had started to resemble a small, portable portal. It had been three dates, five conversations - maybe six, and a promise from a friend to help me decipher her cryptic voicemails in exchange for a 30% commission on the first dinner I ever managed to get her to pay for.