there’s this burger place. it’s out east, so we can only go while we’re on vacation. they have this vanilla milkshake that my sister talked about for months one year. it was her favorite, so i said it was mine too. except, i had never actually had this milkshake, i just acted as if i loved it. and after talking about it for a year, i guess i started to believe it myself. so we go back east, and i finally drink one. and of course, it was different, and maybe not quite as perfect as i had thought, because i had been comparing it to a fantasy.
that’s a lot like what falling in love with you felt like. because i’ve always loved love, even though i had never experienced it. i saw it in movies and tv shows and in random strangers on the street. i thought i was some kind of expert. then you came along, and i all of a sudden i knew nothing. it was different than what i tricked myself into knowing it to be. and that milkshake was different too.
but still, it was a vanilla milkshake. and it was damn good.
— and you are too.