My Meet-Cute

According to wikipedia [my trusted source of all information] a meet-cute is the contrived encounter of two potential romantic partners in unusual or comic circumstances. During a "meet-cute", scriptwriters often create a humorous sense of awkwardness between the two potential partners by depicting among other scenarios, an embarrassing situation.

This evening I had my very first [cheesy, hilarious, straight from a romantic comedy] meet-cute.

Tonight was laundry night. I hate laundry night. In fact, I try and put off laundry night as long as possible. Tonight I had no choice. I finally gave in and made my way to the hot sweaty depths of the laundry mat. Up until I began folding my clothes, it was quite an uneventful evening. And that is where this scene begins.

Enter: Meet-cute cutie, carrying a vintage Nike duffel filled with dirty clothes. As he looks around curiously, apparently unaware of this laundry mat, he decides to dump all of his clothes in one of the big washers. After closing the door of the machine, he looks over at the smaller washers and then at me...

Meet-cute cutie (to me): "Hey do you know how much the big washers cost? I'm trying to figure out if its more bang for my buck."

Me: "No, I've actually never used the big ones."

[Meet-cute cutie makes his was to the front to ask the lady who works there. He comes back my way holding up five fingers.]

Me: "Seriously? Not worth it."

Meet-cute cutie: "I know. I'm just not a bag proponent of separating my colors. I think that is some scam made up by laundry detergent companies" [Meanwhile he is stuffing his clothes into the smaller washers]

Me: "Yes, I thought so too... until one time I died all of my clothes pink."

Meet-cute cutie: "OK, well maybe if you are washing something new." [He closes the doors of his washers, loads in the coins and the detergent. The washers start.]

Meet-cute cutie: "AHHH! My shirt is caught. That's my favorite shirt. What do I do?"

Me: "Can you open the washer?"

Meet-cute cutie: "Um..." [He tried opening the door, but the washer doesn't stop. SOAP IS POURING OUT OF THE MACHINE. (I've only seen this type of thing only happen in the movies.) He urgently runs to the front of the store to flag down the lady, yet again. She comes back, hops on top of the machine to try to shut it off.]

Meet-cute cutie: "I swear it is my favorite shirt."

Me: [Laughing] "Soap is pouring out of your machine."

Meet-cute cutie: [Gazing up at the lady trying to shut off the machine] "Great, I'm ruining my favorite shirt, and I'm probably going to be responsible for breaking the washer."

[Finally the lady shuts off the machine. She signals to Meet-cute cutie to open the door. He tries. The door won't budge. Frustrated, the lady reaches down from where she is standing on top of the machine, and opens the door somewhat effortlessly. Embarrassed, Meet-cute cutie offers her a hand to get down.]

Meet-cute cutie: "Well, that went well."

Me: [Still laughing] "Yes, I'm thinking you should have coughed up the extra dollar for the big machine."

Meet-cute cutie: "So how long do these things take?"

Me: "30 minutes."

Meet-cute cutie: "Wow, I don't have much time left, do I?" [Meanwhile, he receives a phone call. He's talking to someone telling them about how he's gone out every night this week. He proceeds to tell a story. Mid-way through the story the call is lost. ]

Meet-cute cutie: [Turns to me] "Wasn't a good story anyway..."

Me: [Girlish giggling still occurring] "Wow. It is so hot in here."

Meet-cute cutie: "I know. I don't I can stay in here. I know I'm supposed to guard my machine, but I don't care. If they want to take my clothes, they can have them."

Me: "Even your favorite shirt?"

Meet-cute cutie: "That's worth more than the whole lot, but I'll have to take my chances."

[Meet-cute cutie exits the laundry mat. I watch him leave as I finish folding my clothes, his vintage Nike bag still resting on the end of my table.]

End scene.


Most of you probably after reading that whole scenario think you missed the fun,exciting, romantic part... but its hard to describe it. It just had the meet-cute aura of a first encounter. My words don't do it justice. Anyway, that's where the story ends. I will probably never see Meet-cute cutie ever again... but now I can finally say I had a missed connection.