We are in Santa Barbara. It is November, and Anne and I are here for our anniversary, walking back to our hotel after the first romantic dinner we’ve enjoyed in months.
Though it is Saturday night, this normally crowded street is nearly deserted, because it is pouring rain. A cold, relentless rain that soaks into my shoes and clings to my body. The cold cuts straight through me, numbing my hands and feet.
The few people who have chosen to brave the storm are huddled in doorways and under awnings. Anne and I share a too-small umbrella in a futile attempt to stay dry.
It has been a wonderful evening, ending a wonderful day. We haven’t gotten to spend much time just enjoying each other’s company, just being together for several weeks, and I am cherishing every rain-soaked moment.
The storm intensifies as we hurry back to our hotel, turning downspouts to waterfalls, and the street into a small stream. Normally, the urge to stomp in puddles is irresistible to me, but the numbness is creeping up my legs now, and I need little encouragement to leave the puddles alone.
After a few blocks, the cold and rain is too much for me, and I suggest that we stop, and hail a cab.
Anne stops, and looks at me, her blue eyes gleaming. She says they’re green, but they’re blue…I see them whenever my mind wanders, so I know.
She steps out of the small shelter our umbrella is providing, and stands unprotected in the rain.
“I want to walk in the rain!” She declares.
“But it’s 40 degrees!” I remind her, shivering. A few passersby look at us as if we’re having a fight, and I chuckle to myself. They couldn’t be more wrong.
“I don’t care,” she tells me, her hair falling down and clinging to the sides of her face, her jacket darkening as it absorbs the storm. “Someday, I’m going to want to walk in the cold rain, and feel it on my face, and I’m not going to be able to. So I’m going to do it now.”
She reaches out and touches my cheek, and pulls my face to her. She leans towards me, kisses my nose, and walks away, her face cast upwards, her palms turned up to receive the rain.
She stomps into a puddle, and turns around.
“C’mon, you weenie! Walk with me!”
She is so beautiful, so joyous. The storm threatens to draw a curtain of rain around her, obscuring her from my view. Though she is twenty feet from me, I can see her beaming and feel her joy. She positively loves this.
I watch her, happily standing in the rain. In this moment I know why I married her. I know why she is the other half of my heartbeat.
But it’s 40 degrees. There’s no way I’m giving up this umbrella.
I lean against the rain, and close the distance between us. When I draw near her, she reaches out and knocks the umbrella out of my hand.
As it falls to the ground, she takes me in her arms. She pulls me to her, and kisses me.
“I love you,” she says, rain dripping off her nose onto my face.
She does love me. It’s one thing to say it, and one thing to hear it, but it’s another thing to feel it.
“I love you too,” I reply.
We stand there in the rain for a moment, looking at each other. We are soaking wet, freezing cold, and desperately in love.
188 thoughts on “We Close Our Eyes”
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This is a lovely post… I’m really touched by it, mostly because I remember that kind of feeling. Thanks for sharing.
Wonderful
Wow.
All I can say is that I hope when I’m married, and I call my husband a weenie one minute and say “I love you” the next.
Beautiful. ^_^
Wil said Futile.. (you know as in “resistance is…”) Ok.. I’ll shutup now..
It’s moments like that that make marriage great, you know?
for a second there It felt like you were writing about me and my wife…
sounds like you’re as lucky as me wil…
and that is lucky indeed…
beautiful story, and (dare i say it) some of your best writing…
thanks wil
ty
What a refreshing post!
*smile*
*Gush*
Yeah. I remember that feeling.
What a gorgeous piece of writing. It so accurately describes that love I know with my boyfriend, the feeling I thought words could not describe. Nice to know that I was wrong.
peace,
-kg
That’s beautiful. *^^*
one word: Beautiful
Big fat AAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. 🙂
First of all, there’s no fucking way it was 40 degrees, unless this isn’t l.a. Second, i’ve been in love, and (here’s the big secret girls) guys know when their girl’s looking good, and looking cute, but the testosterone negates almost all romance. Wils’ gotta big time woody here. That’s the real male perspective.
P.S. My gramma’s gotta picture of covina with snow, taken in the fifties. Those days are long gone.
And now for my totally irrelevant, completely unrelated post:
IT’S ONLY 21 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS! How cool is that! I’m sorry if I come across as one of those christmas freako’ kind of people, but I am. Every year around this time, even though I’m 20 and should be ‘growing up’ (PLEASE! give me a break) christmas still is the best time ever!!!!!
And for the record, jumping around in the rain is probably the most fun thing you can do!
I hope one day to feel that kind of emotion for someone wonderful. Unfortunately it hasn’t happened for me [yet]:(
Awww that was really lovely.
DAMMIT!
It’s like four hours before I get to go home and hug and kiss my wife. DAMMIT! I hate work, and Wheaton for writing something so DAMN romantic and full of love.
* READ FOLLOWING LIKE YOU ARE WATCHING STAR TREK 2 and seeing Kirk screaming in the middle of the planet scene:*
WHEEEEAATTONNNN!!! WHEAAATTTONNN!!!
He just had to be good writer, didn’t he.
Note to self: Squirrel away funds to purchase Wheaton book.
Leo, the crazed and waiting reader of good literature written by once actor, now writer/actor/web god.
Hey Wil, LOVE your Boingo reference in your title! Did anyone else get it? Oh, and great story too, Anne is a prize, don’t mess it up! 😉
*sigh*
Damn, you are one smooth bastard, Wil Wheaton. Great entry and beautifully written.
it doesn’t get wonderfully mushier than this. thanks for sharing wil, and congrats on you and anne’s anniversary. 🙂
Reminds me of the line in the song: “Now Maria has the sense to stay out in the rain…”
Who sez guys don’t like romance? I certainly do, though I’m not exactly typical…plus I always seem to date people whose response to a single red rosebud is “What’s that for?” Really irritating.
And he might have been exaggerating when he said it was 40 degrees. People do that. It’s just part of how people talk.
I love this kinda stuff. I assume, Wil, that you edited out the part where you stopped shivering and fell down, and she carried you back to the hotel and called 911…just kidding!
Lovely post, Wil! It reminds me of when I met up with my future husband for a weekend in Philly and we walked together in the rain as well…a mildly uncomfortable situation but still wonderful and romantic.
Nice.
Although I’m starting to jones for your entertaining “Wil is coming, and is he pissed” posts these days. Sentiment is neat, though. 😉
In other news, if you (or anyone else who reads this) live near a Trader Joe’s, you really should try some Wild Raspberry “Caf
I’m jealous. 🙂 I hope I’m as lucky as you two someday.
Clay
I lived the moment with you.
thx,
Lice
Awwww!
It’s always nice to see happy people. There are enough of them in this world.
God, that is beautiful. When I was 17, I went running off through the rain into a park, leaving my exasperated boyfriend trying to catch up with me. There’s something about rain that makes me giddy, I guess. We’re 21, now, and he’s asked me to spend my life with him. For some reason, this post makes me think of the two of us. I can see us in that scene, in the future.
Would anyone like some wine with their cheese?
Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Nothing more needs to be said.
Damn you. That was beautiful. ::sniffles::
I want my sweetie now, but he’s in England. Wah!
Yay Santa Barbara….I’m an SB local trapped in Oxford University for the year….anyway. cool.
I agree with Johan up there (him being my hubby and all, we think alike), that was beautiful. I’ve definitely had moments like that before. 🙂
When you find her, you know right away!
Thanks for making me smile.
That was one of the most beautiful things I have eve read it seriously brought a tear to my eye. TYou just expressed something that most people feel but never know how to say. It just proves your gonna make it as a writer and in your marrage. My hats off to ya..welll I don’t really wear a hat but if I did it would be..*smile* God bless.
I’m getting married in July… and my only prayer is that my husband and I remain as in love as you two are.
Happy anniversary, Wil and Anne!
Beautiful post. I love it when moments like that happen between my husband and me. Thanks for sharing, Wil.
40 degrees and raining in Santa Barbara?!? What Santa Barbara were YOU in? 🙂
Go Gauchos!
*SIGH*
Beautiful.
That was just beautiful, Wil.
Absolutely beautiful.
Athena
I’ve been reading your blog for about a week now, and I’ve wanted to post but didn’t want to be too much of a groupie. I had QUITE the crush on you in your Wesley Crusher days. I honestly had trouble thinking of you as anything else until I was introduced to Wil Wheaton dot net. But ready your words, I’ve come to realize that you’re a real person. Go figure. 🙂
And on that note, let me just say that this entry has to be one of the most romantic things I have ever read. I got goosebumps just reading it, moreso because I know it’s a true story, this really happened between you and your wife and it’s so gratifying and amazing to know that that kind of wonder and romance still exists in the world. Your words are so vivid, I can see the two of you in the rain, feel the rain soaking everything. Brilliant. Amazing. Awe inspiring. Especially because it’s true.
Thank you for being you and for sharing yourself with the rest of us.
Okay:
*gush*
*sigh*
Awwwwww!!!
Thank you, wil, that was beautiful. I’m going to run upstairs right now and hug my Hockey Player!
Aaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww.
She’s a very lucky girl.
*big sigh*
Wil, your so good at capturing moments in words. My bf and I are soulmates, and even though we haven’t done the knot thing yet, I know we’ll enjoy moments like yours when we’re old. Mushy, mushy, I know…but it’s all true. Happy anniversary to you two!
I think you forgot the part where a giant truck with big wheels drives by and drenches you in mud and water causing you to fall to the ground.
As you roll under a homeless guy’s cardboard, shanty shack you go to kiss Anne and realize she has Spinach lodged between her teeth & her breath smells of Garlic. A large pocket of air escapes your buttocks further permeating the air with the stinch of Sulfur & Broccoli.
Fortunately with the trapped gas and a trusty lighter you’re able to build a small campfire which keeps you warm throughout the rainy night. A smile glues to your face as he serenades both of you with horrible renditions of “Muskrat Love” and every song by Air Supply.
In your atypical jaded, Hollywood boredom with each other you occasionally pay the man to strip naked, play the Tuba, and juggle your dog every other Saturday night.
I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. Ain’t love grand? I think I’m just jealous cause I’m not in love. I’m glad you found someone special in your life. I sometimes get tired of the lovey dovey stuff I hear from my friends. Maybe someday love will come knocking at my door again.
Wil u bastard! you’ve now demolished all hope of me ever finding a man who lives up to your standards!
seriously though, thats like the best piece of fiction ive ever read, except its not fiction, which makes you wonderful 🙂
*melts into a mooshy puddle*
reminds me of 2 people I know very well 🙂
happoy anniversary!
If I had any doubts before about the pure poetry you are capable of, mr. wheaton, they have been dispelled. Whether it’s a reference to pomegrantes in Hades, or the other half of your heartbeat, you have a way with words.
I wish the two of you nothing but the best.
goose bumps