Writing prompt 1

End with, "It was raining, but he didn't open his umbrella."

Well, my brain already begain *starting* with the quote, so I followed it:

The first time I saw him, it was raining, but he didn't open his umbrella.

He was crossing the street, wearing a suit and tie. His coat was open, and I wondered where he was going in such a hurry. The umbrella hung off his arm, unopened, and he held a newspaper over his head.

I started to see him more after that. Maybe he'd always been there and I'd just never noticed...he'd blended into the crowds. But now I see him everywher. Buying a paper at the corner store. Walking out of the coffee shop, carrying his coffee in a paper cup. Walking his chocolate lab in the park.

I haven't figured out where he lives. It's not like I can follow him home, see where he goes. That would be crepy. Stalkerish. Talk to him? Well, that I could do. In theory. I just never seem to find the words. We make eye contact. Smile. And then I break away, embarrassed and tongue tied.

I'm terrible at this. I met my husband in college, where you don't so much "date" as wake up one day to find yourself in a relationship. He proposed before we graduated, we got married a year later, and then we lived blissfully for the next ten years.

Or so I thought.