Her favorite flowers are roses and tiger lilies.
Her favorite book is Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli.
Her favorite composer is Frank Ticheli.
She hates Burger King, but loves Taco Bell.
When she grows up, she wants to be a Disney princess.
So, let’s rewind a minute. After coffee, but before our first real date, Angie texted me one night after we hadn’t talked in about a week.
She told me that she and her friends had stumbled upon a New York Times article called “The 36 Questions that Lead to Love.” Angie told me that she couldn’t help but notice that I had asked her a few of those questions word for word, and asked if I was trying to make her fall in love with me.
I asked if it was working. She wouldn’t give me a straight answer then, but now… I think I know whether it was or not.
She asked if I had found the same article and had gotten inspiration for some of my questions from there.
Truth is, I hadn’t.
I just like questions.
It makes sense, after all, given what I do for a living. To nail the biggest stories in journalism, you have to ask a lot of them, and they have to be good.
And from the moment I met Angie, I had a feeling she could be a front page, above-the-fold headline in my life.
So I asked. And asked. And asked.
As Angie said in a previous post, my first words to her were a question. I asked if she’d rather be trapped in an ice cream factory for a month, or live the rest of her life without ice cream.
I still ask questions, every day.
I know her hopes. Her dreams. Her fears. Her regrets. The file cabinet in my head for ‘Brown, Angie’ must take up half my brain.
To this day, we still play a game called ‘random question time.’ It usually happens mid-conversation about something else. I’ll ask her something completely out-of-the-blue.
Lots of people would blow me off, give me some nothing answer. But not Angie.
She puts thought into every single question I ask her, and always gives me an answer that I didn’t expect.
She challenges my mind, and makes me question my own thoughts on things.
And so, I remember. I keep filling up that cabinet full of random information about this woman who steals more and more of my heart every day.
I’ll remember her perfect breakfast. I’ll remember her favorite pair of shoes. I’ll remember the Christmas gift that she’ll never forget.
I’ll remember all of it. Someday, I know it’ll be worth it.
We’d later look up that New York Times article, and go through those 36 love questions one-by-one.
But the truth is, I didn’t need all of that to fall for Angie.
All I needed was one answer-
“Dude. Trapped there for a month. Hands down.”
Harmonious Stories 