we met of all places in front of gristedes some freakishly cold winter s day i had on several unflattering layers of wool he slipped on the ice with his grocery bags full so i rescued some froot loops he dropped by the curb and he made some remark that my smile was superb and i thought that was sweet and i started to go and he said hey whatcha doing tomorrow because i ll be here at the corner of bleecker and mercer tomorrow at 7 if you want to meet up i ll be waiting right here and in case there are two fellas waiting for you my name s john he waved and then he was gone needless to say i went back there to meet him mostly to see if he d show and there he was out in the cold with his jacket pulled tight he took me to dinner and kissed me goodnight the next week we went to this terrible play and the week after that drank hot chocolate all day and suddenly eight or nine months had flown by when he said hey whatcha doing the rest of your life because i ll be here right beside you as long as you want me to be there s no question there is nothing i ve wanted so much in my life this might sound immature but i m totally sure you re the one and we had just begun we got hitched in september our favorite month with a rock band that played in this old synagogue and we bought an apartment on west 17th street and talked about children and getting a dog our first anniversary came in a flash and we promised to take the day off he had to stop into his office that morning and so i went walking uptown to this bakery i know when i heard on the street what i thought was a joke til i noticed the sirens and saw all the smoke so i m running back home with this feeling of dread to the voicemail he left with the last words he said i m sorry i don t mean to ruin your evening by bringing up all of this stuff you re probably wondering why i even called you tonight well today something happened that spooked me alright i saw this storm cloud of papers fall down from the sky and i thought of that day and i started to cry when as sure as i breathe i heard john clear as day saying hey you re allowed to move on it s okay because i ll be here even if you decide to get rid of my favorite sweater even if you go out on my birthday this year instead of staying at home letting all of life s moments pass by you don t have to cry because i ll be here when you start going back to the places we went to together when you take off my ring and you let yourself smile when you meet some handsome and patient and true when he says that he wants to be married to you when you call him one night and he meets you downtown and you finally answer him yes yes jason i will marry you i will give you my heart it has taken so long but i m ready to start right now john s whispering congrats in my ear cause i finally let myself tell you that i will be here