You know how when you meet someone for the first time and you just get this feeling that starts in your stomach and pinballs its way up and down your spine, and it’s like your endorphins have come out to play after a long, rainy day stuck indoors and you just start talking and there’s an excitement that builds on every word, and everything that person is saying is insightful, funny or moving, sometimes all three, and then maybe you unintentionally touch hands and feel a jolt of electricity pulsing through wherever you most like to pulse, and in that moment it feels so good to be alive and to have connected with this person and maybe there is a God or at least a higher power that controls the universe, or maybe it’s just totally random, who cares, because you’re totally plugged into each other, and you talk and talk and talk some more and the more you talk, the more you feel the sparks flying, bright flashes that light up the night sky in your faraway heart, and you don’t want this night to end, so you keep thinking of other things to say and talk about your childhood and your children and your hopes and dreams and fears, and it all feels safe and somehow familiar and you’re just being yourself, maybe more than you’ve ever been in your life, because this person you never met before seems to get you, sees you for who you really are, and you both feel that something beyond your control is happening beneath the flow of words, and realize that this kind of thing doesn’t happen very often so when it does it’s special and needs to be attended to, and it’s not just about getting laid although that certainly is on your mind, and you imagine what it would be like to kiss while you’re talking about your favorite foreign movies, and then you wonder what it would be like to hold hands and take a walk on the beach or in Paris or when you were in the sixth grade, and it’s so strange that this person already feels important to you and you know that makes little sense, but the truth is that it doesn’t feel strange at all, it just feels right and you don’t want the night to end but you also wouldn’t mind seeing what it would look like in the morning, so you talk and laugh and then maybe touch hands, intentionally this time, and when you finally run out of things to say, you gaze at each other in this new silence and it’s not awkward at all, in fact it feels like easing into a warm, soothing bath and if you listen carefully you can hear each other’s heartbeat and you know that sounds like a load of romantic bullshit but you soak it in just the same, and when the night finally comes to an end, you both know it’s really just the beginning?

That.