You Are My Wildest Dream

A Perfect Storm

We share a tight hug in the doorway as Hannah whimpers into my neck, "I'm so sorry, I don't know why I keep trying to push you away. I know you care, and you've helped more in these last few days than people I've known my whole life."

I rub her back slowly to ground her, then place my hands on her shoulders as I pull away. "The clouds seem to be letting up, let's go for a walk," I say with an eager smile on my face to sport some enthusiasm, knowing if we stay in this hotel or a bed any longer we both might lose our minds even more. "Oh, okay, yeah, sure. Let me get changed quickly, I'll meet you downstairs," Hannah replies while rubbing her eyes then heads off into her own room. I throw on some beat sneakers because I know the storm must've worked hard last night and early this morning. I grab a jacket and head for the stairwell to the lobby. Within a few minutes, Hannah walks down and meets me there just as she promised. "You ready?!" She asks with a change in tone, seeming a bit more excited now too. I decide to play her back, so I nudge her arm and say, "I've been ready. Are you ready? That's the real question." She pushes me back and exclaims, "Oh, please shut up. Let's go before I change my mind so I won't have to hear your "jokes" that aren't funny." We laugh in unison and head out the lobby doors.

Before the doors even open, we can see a few trees had fallen last night due to the wind, and there are puddles everywhere. We're both silent as we take in the sight, then feel the chilly wind blow through us. Hannah breaks the brief silence, "Come on, let's explore this! It's gonna be so cool!" She grabs my hand and leads me out into the storm-ridden streets. We take long strides to avoid stepping in massive puddles, tree branches, and even worms. Hannah's smile hasn't left her face since she grabbed my hand, and now I can't help but smile since she's smiling. Her energy has completely changed; as she's leading us she's like an adventurer filled with curiosity, youth, and determination to make a discovery. With our hands still intertwined yet her face feeling miles away, I yell up to her, "HEY! Where are you taking us to, Bear Grylls?" This question scores me a laugh from the great explorer herself, as she yells backs, "I'M LETTING THE WIND TAKE US! JUST COME ON, KEEP UP WITH ME, YOU TURTLE." With a massive grin, she breaks our hands apart and starts running ahead, as I already can hear her laugh getting farther away from me and echoing off the vacant buildings. "HANNAH, NOOOOOO!" I yell back while laughing too, but also feeling just a teeny tiny little bit microscopic no-big-deal type scared.

I went off to the side of the road to catch my breath and to try and keep my eye on Hannah as she continued to run full-speed ahead. I admired her determination and loved watching her live freely like this; this is who she is underneath it all. She does show this side in her professional life too, but it's harder to crack open in her personal life that I've now learned is a bit clouded by her repressed family life. Speaking of clouds, I begin to notice a few more ahead quickly approaching. "HEY, HANNAH, COME BACK, THERE'S SOME CLOUDS COMING," I yell as loud as I could with my hands making a DIY microphone on the sides of my mouth. Unsure if she could even hear me, I notice her look right up as I finished saying it. She must've noticed them too, as she spun around a began lightly jogging back to me. Within a few minutes, we embraced, "Gosh you're so sweaty," I tease her. "Gosh, so are you, and you didn't even come all the way out with me!" We laugh together, but it's cut short by the clouds getting darker right above us. "Let's head back now, yeah? They don't look too hot." I say back pointing up to the clouds. It only took a few seconds for them to start pouring all over us, letting the rain hit every inch of our bodies. Hannah immediately started giggling as I scrambled to calm my nerves. "Ugh, I LOVE THIS ROWAN!" Hannah exclaimed as she twirled around in the droplets. She continued while reaching for my hands, "COME ON! COME HERE!" She started twirling me around with her, and before I knew it we were dancing together as she led us.

I kissed her forehead as we stayed swaying in the rain, then I let our, "This is INSANE, BUT ALSO KINDA PERFECT." She smiled back and looked off into the mountains, then exclaimed, "YOU AND I, A PERFECT STORM." We kept eye contact as she said that, as I couldn't believe she just said something so strong in such a casual way. For the first time on our walk, the energy got serious; it felt like the rain was falling in slow motion as we lingered in each other's eyes. All I could see and hear was Hannah, I couldn't even remember my own name at this point. She spoke up to break the silence and asked in a soft voice, "Will you be my girlfriend?"