The girl in the yellow hat loves the rain. Everyone says they do, at least everyone I talk to, but her relationship borders on obsession. She sings in it, dances in it, and most importantly, sits in it.
Which is what she was doing when I tried to pick her up.
“I live around the corner, and it’s dry,” I said. “I even have hot tea and maybe coffee if I haven’t finished it.”
“It’s nice out; what are you, a fucking goat?”
“Why a goat?” I asked, realizing quickly that if I were going to talk with her, it would be right there on the steps of Lucille’s.
“They hate the rain,” she said, looking up with a grin. I made the snap decision to sit down next to her, and she made room for me, offering half a cheek’s worth of dry stone.
“Fair enough. I used to like it. I mean, I still do, but you know how it goes. You get old and start carrying things in your pockets that you don’t want to get wet, and before you know it, you’re wearing rubber boots in the shower.”
“I’m fairly certain that’s not why you wear rubber boots in the shower.”
“Touché,” I said, looking up and opening my mouth. City rain might not be to everyone’s taste, but I had something to prove, and I wasn’t going to fold up and go home even if it was just around the corner. And dry.
“Want to go look at the river?” She asked, handing me a glass flask full of a brown liquor I couldn’t distinguish. It tasted like a piney winter night in the Alps, with a hint of a warm fire and a blanket. I didn’t ask what it was, and she didn’t offer.
But we did walk down Spring St. to the Hudson. As we passed the bottle back and forth, warmth exploding in my chest with each sip, we walked out onto the pier, where the park sat quiet and empty, and we found a bench just a few feet from where the rain turned the river into a dreamscape.
I sat down first. She sat on my lap, side-saddle like I was a pony at the town fair. She wrapped one arm around my neck and finished what was left of the mountain liquor before planting a kiss right on my lips. Not one to refuse such a kind gesture, I kissed her back as she swung a leg between us and straddled me face-to-face.