23 Things That Remind Me Of You

1. Pulling an oversized sweater around me when it’s raining outside.

2. When I’m walking down a street I don’t know at that perfect hour, right when the sun starts to go pink, trying to decide on a restaurant for dinner that night.

3. When I read the menus to myself and look in the window at the waiters putting down the glasses and the silverware, and nothing feels rushed.

4. Sitting on a park bench and watching people walk by, children running to catch up with parents and couples leaning into one another as though everything they said was an inside joke just for the two of them.

5. Hearing that song come on unexpectedly, and feeling like I should text you to tell you that it came on, even though that’s an objectively silly thing to text someone over.

6. The sound of people laughing together at a joke you’ll never quite hear, when their sense of closeness radiates outward and you feel like you can catch it for just a minute.

7. Riding alone on the subway at night and seeing the lights of the stations and tunnels pass by one after the other, and being rocked to sleep like a car ride when you were a little kid.

8. A really good dessert that’s just too big for one person, the kind that they normally bring out with two spoons so the two of you would encourage the other to take another bite.

9. Watching the leaves change, and then peak, and then fall.

10. Waking up and seeing the blankets and pillows all piled around like there was someone there and forgetting, just for a second, that there isn’t.

11. The first snow of the season, when everything is quiet and everyone can’t talk about anything else, and because you know it won’t stick you watch every last flake as it falls.

12. Seeing something in a shop window that would fit you just right, that would be just your style, but that you would never splurge on for yourself.

13. When something really, really funny happens, and I immediately turn around to look at you with that “Oh my god, what??” face, even when you’re not there.

14. Walking through a museum and seeing a painting that I’ve seen in pictures or magazines a thousand times before, but which becomes so breathtaking the first time you actually see it in person.

15. Counting the brush strokes and looking at the tiny mistakes because, for some reason, it becomes even more beautiful when I can see the imperfect details.

16. A couple leaning into their table at the restaurant to say something quietly, meeting their hands in the middle right next to their wine glasses to run their fingers together.

17. Wondering what that couple is saying, how long they have been together, and if they know how lucky they are to have what they have.

18. Meeting eyes with a child for a minute or so while their mother is ordering at a counter or paying for her groceries, and wishing you could say hello to them in a way that they would understand.

19. Walking through a playground at night and swinging on the swing set, which is somehow just as thrilling and new as it was when you were five years old.

20. An old man helping his wife cross the street, letting her lean on him even though you can tell that walking upright is not easy for him, either.

21. When someone says your name across the room and my brain refuses to understand, for just a minute, that anyone else could have the same as you.

22. The first sip of tea when it’s still a little too hot, but it feels good against your lips and hands when it’s so cold out.

23. The sun coming in through the window late on a Sunday morning, with the little dust fairies floating around in the light, and the sound of people walking around just outside.