Every year, I try to rewatch dozens of movies, finding comfort in seeing familiar characters and saying aloud what their next lines will be. Around Thanksgiving, I’d prep myself for this tradition with one of my favorites, “When Harry Met Sally” by reading the screenplay for the first time ever, so that when it was time to actually sit down and watch it again, I’d connect with it differently than last time.
Reading that kind of thing around the holidays would make any other hopeless romantic yearn for their own cinematic meet-cute.
And miraculously for me, I didn’t just fall in love like in the movies — I got to fall in love at the movies.
I went alone to the movies
When Thanksgiving came around, I decided to treat myself to another tradition I hadn’t done in months: I went on a solo date to the movies.
I was debating which movie to watch in the first place. Torn between going to a theater closer to my apartment or going to a farther one that had the movie I actually wanted to see, I chose the latter and figured it’d be worth it.
And I was right.
The theater was surprisingly busy for Thanksgiving night, employees and customers alike pacing from end to end. As I waited in line for concessions, one employee in particular caught my eye.
He was tall, adorable, and seemingly around my age. He was rushing back to his register, anxiously apologizing to customers, which made him even cuter.
He beckoned me over since I was next.
As I nervously approached him to say my order, I’d learn the name that would stay in mind the rest of the night — Brett.
I gave him my phone number
It wasn’t until I took my card out to pay that I finally mustered up the courage to find something to talk about with him.
Though his dimples certainly caught my eye, I used his hair as my starting point. “Do you use gel or anything like that to get your hair that way? Or you just wake up and poof?”
He laughed, “No, I just woke up, messed around with it and hoped for the best,” while flashing that million-dollar smile at me.
He’d ask me what I was there to see, and my response (“We Live in Time”) let him share the gem of knowledge that he could barely handle emotional movies like that. From there, we went back and forth about other movies we had or hadn’t seen recently, chatting for so long that my cheeks hurt from smiling, and my back would turn in guilt of potentially holding up the line.
Anyone on the outside might think he was upselling me, but I had paid long ago.
I had to leave him then, but not forever. After filling my soda, because I was emboldened by either the rom-com gods or AMC’s Nicole Kidman herself, I took advantage of a pen I had and the receipt he gave me. I wrote a semi-long note that started with “If you have a girl or aren’t into girls, ignore this” and ended with my number.
I returned to him, Red Vines in one hand and the receipt in another. I said, “Excuse me, but you might’ve given me the wrong receipt.”
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We’ve been dating since
As his concerned eyes wandered to my note, I did what any romantic protagonist would do — I ran away.
I laughed and cried during the movie, my Brett in my thoughts every now and then.
Once the movie finished, I checked my phone. No notifications.
I got home. Still nothing.
I had just finished the screenplay and desperately needed Billy Crystal to cheer me up after Andrew Garfield’s tears, so I finally put on “When Harry Met Sally.” After convincing myself he was taken and about 15 minutes into the movie, Brett texted me.
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He apologized for the delay, wanting to wait until after his shift so he could give me his full attention. When I told him what I was watching to soothe myself, not only did he say he does the same thing, but he’d immediately quote back to me my favorite scene: “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”
While I didn’t realize it then, I knew I wanted the rest of it to start as soon as possible after every surreal date that would follow. And though we’re far from the ending, I’m grateful to have a partner who not only wants to accompany me to the movies but will never let us stop feeling like we’re in one.
