Have You Heard This Girl Sing?

January 6th, 2014

“Have you heard this girl sing?”

I turned.

What?

Of course I’ve heard this girl sing. She’s my girlfriend, for god sake, what do you think, I haven’t heard her sing?

But no. I didn’t say that. I turned and cracked an uncomfortable smile.

“Uh, yeah, I have.”

“She has an amazing voice.”

He smiled a comfortable smile, which pissed me off a little bit more. She returned his smile with that bashful grin that she gives me right after I tell her she is beautiful.

“Michael.” He reached out his hand and introduced himself. I shook it.

Wait-

“Brendan.” I introduced myself.

She’s told me about you.

“Good to meet you.” He said, “I’ve heard a lot about you.” He looked at her and smiled.

Of course you have, I’m her boyfriend.

“You’re doing well?” He asked, more of her than of me, of course.

Listen to him. Who does he think he is? Yeah, she’s told me about you. Yeah, I know you two used to write letters to each other. I’ve even seen them. She showed them to me. They were pretty stupid, and they sounded like they were written by a twelve-year-old. And yes, I saw the silly little cartoons you drew in them, and the maps of your neighborhood in San Francisco that you drew. And you know what? After she showed them to me, she decided not to write you back. How do you feel about that?

“Yeah! Doing well.”

“Great. When do you go back to school?”

Why do you care when she goes back to school, huh? If you really wanted to know, you could look it up on the University of VIrginia website and find out when their spring semester starts. There, it says it right there – Wednesday, January 8th.

“Well, classes start back the 9th, I think – Or wait, maybe the 8th- I’m not sure!” She laughed. They both laughed.

“That’s okay – I never remembered when class started either…”

Right, sure you didn’t.

“Well, good to see you.”

“Good to see you too.” he said, giving her a side hug. “Stay in touch and let me know how your semester goes!” He turned to me.

“And good to meet you-“

That ridiculously responsible tone of voice – It sounds like you practiced for months to sound like the “Responsible post-collegiate, addressing your crush’s boyfriend”. Yep, you pretty much nailed that one.

“You too.”

But that didn’t matter. No. You go back to San Francisco, find some other girl and have a good life. My girlfriend will not be staying in touch, and she will not be letting you know how her semester goes. And no, you will not be hearing her amazing singing voice. Why? Let me tell you why.

Because she’s my girl, not yours. You’re too old for her, you don’t live near her, you have your own life, you haven’t even known her for a year. That’s why.

And because I’m going to propose, and she’s going to say yes.

As we turned away, he waved and sent us a comfortable smile goodbye.

And she returned it.

She does have an amazing singing voice.

To me.

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