Shawn Still Hearts My Scarf

What a pleasant surprise!

Every morning I connect to one of three buses going past my workplace. On this particular morning I make my connection to the University bus. I sit my disheveled self down on a seat behind the driver. I’m feeling grumpy and unbeautiful as I had run out of the door with wet hair and no makeup (I usually curl my hair at work which takes all of 2 minutes. The makeup I apply at the bus stop and today there was no time…Yes, I’m total high maintenance hahahaha). I notice a guy across from me. He looks remarkably similar to a high school friend I once knew. Infact, just over a year ago I attended his wedding. His baseball cap is blocking a clear view of his face so I decide to move across the aisle to sit next to him. And so I do…

Indeed, it was him. I stared him straight on. He looked up. I smiled. He recognized. We caught up on the going ons in our lives. His wife is expecting!!!! How exciting!!!! I’m very happy for him!
We realized we work on the same campus! Who knew? I didn’t.

We exchanged phone numbers. I told him my last name was still the same… for now. I wish I had taken the time to look at what he had written before I put the paper away. I didn’t read it until I got into my office. It said “Shawn (he heart’s your scarf!)” beside his phone number. There was a drawing of a heart rather than the word. That made me smile. You see, when I was in high school I had a mad crush on this fine friend. He was the sensitive, tortured, left-handed drummer poet boy. He would leave the province for months or years at a time. When I went off to college, he was away in British Columbia. We would exchange letters from time to time. Infact, I do believe he called me after my first day of school. An auspicious day as that was also the day I met my best friend, Jessica and my ex-boyfriend, Mike. A couple months into the college year (and greatly into the pining for Shawn) I sent a letter with a photocopy of a photo taken of me in photography class. I was wearing a scarf that I knitted in my last year of high school. I was quite fond of saying that I hearted my scarf. Which is not a fallacy as I do indeed have great love for this scarf! To be completely honest, I do look particularly attractive in this photo (I will try to remember to upload a copy of the photo to here). I think on the photo copy I had written “I heart my scarf”.
Sadly (at the time), the story from my youth had a somewhat unhappy ending. Shawn was just not that into me. I didn’t float his boat. I didn’t make his heart go a-flutter. He did visit me once the following fall. Then we lost track until his wedding last year (I attended as a guest of his friend). Oh, and I saw him once or twice at the store where I was working at the time. And of course, we had to have a hug as that was our high school specialty!

And so I am pleased that I saw Shawn today and that he remembered how much I heart my scarf! He is a fine fine soul! 🙂