Great Meeting Story
GREAT MEETING STORY – October 4, 2024 – Chandler, Arizona, USA
Lights flickered on above the four adjoining softball fields. Chloe and her friend, Sabrina, warmed up their arms with a game of catch before finding spots in the dugout.
“Looks like Sebastian’s missing another game,” Sabrina said.
“He told me there was a 50/50 chance his boss would make him stay late,” Chloe replied. “I guess he’s unlucky. If it’s true.”
“You think he’s lying?”
“I dunno. I might just be paranoid, but something feels off. All of a sudden, he has to work at crazy times. And he’s in these weird moods, like when we’re together he can’t wait to be somewhere else. Joining a softball league was his idea and now he can’t show up for the games.”
Sabrina gave Chloe a sympathetic look and said, “Relationships are tough.”
“I wonder all the time if he’s the one for me.”
“Yeah, the odds of finding ‘the one’ are pretty long.”
“One big red flag for us is we don’t have a good meeting story.”
“What do you mean?”
“Sebastian and I met at a party. Somebody introduced us. Totally boring. Great couples have interesting meeting stories. Couples meant to last, they meet when she rescues him from drowning, or they both miss a flight and catch a train together in Europe.”
“I met my boyfriend on a dating app,” Sabrina replied with a laugh. “That doesn’t sound very interesting. I guess we’re not going to last.”
“You never know, but the better the start, the better chance you have.”
The softball game began and no thanks to Sebastian, Chloe’s team won. She batted home two runs and made no fielding errors at second base. After her teammates congratulated each other, she dropped her bat and glove into the back of her car and wondered what she should do with the rest of Friday night. She had planned to spend it with Sebastian, but he had not sent a message about when he could leave work.
Chloe drove toward her apartment, scanning through radio stations for good songs. She stopped for a red light at a large intersection. As she watched the line of cars turning left onto the street directly in front of her, she spotted Sebastian’s dark blue VW Golf R. Even when illuminated by only the overhead streetlights, there was no mistaking the color and custom license plate that spelled out SEBRIZ. She recognized the sound as he revved the engine. He was very proud of that car and how fast it accelerated.
Chloe’s first instinct was to follow the blue Golf. Sebastian had obviously left work but forgotten to message her. She would catch up and surprise him and then maybe they would go out for dinner.
The light turned green and Chloe weaved through traffic to catch her boyfriend. When she closed in, she saw through his rear window that he was talking to someone in the car. Who could it be? A friend from work or was something more suspicious going on? They reached a popular retail area that was surrounded by restaurants, including Sebastian’s favorite, Texas Roadhouse. Chloe followed as Sebastian pulled into the large parking lot that serviced a dozen different businesses. Rather than tailing him to a parking space, Chloe idled in a drop off area with a good view of the Texas Roadhouse entrance.
Two minutes later, Sebastian appeared on the well-lit sidewalk leading to the restaurant. A tall bleach-blonde walked next to him. She wore shorts and a shirt to show off her tanned midriff and legs. One of Sebastian’s arms encircled her waist. With his free hand, he fussed with the curls drooping over his eyebrows. He said something and the blonde laughed like it was the funniest joke in the world. He was too interested in her to look around and notice Chloe staring back at him. He opened the door for his new fling and they disappeared into the restaurant.
Chloe gripped her steering wheel and clenched her jaw as she growled. Working late! Ha! How long had he been lying? He looked too cozy with that ditz for this to be their first time out together. Chloe squeezed her hands tighter on the wheel to keep from putting her car into gear and ramming through Texas Roadhouse’s entrance.
Right then, the Carrie Underwood song, “Before He Cheats,” started on the radio. Chloe knew the lyrics well. They were about a girl who destroys her cheating boyfriend’s truck by keying the side and slashing the seats and tires. One line about using a baseball bat kept playing in Chloe’s mind: “I took a Louisville Slugger to both headlights.” She had a bat in the backseat. Her entire body shook with fury as she decided to reenact the Carrie Underwood song.
Driving around the parking lot with focused but blind rage, Chloe found the blue Golf R parked in a poorly lit, out-of-the-way spot. Perfect. No witnesses. Before she got out of her car, Chloe retrieved the pocketknife she kept in her glove compartment. She grabbed her bat and walked to the front of the Golf. She took a couple of practice swings, lining up with the right headlight. The bat felt light. The surrounding parking lot lay deathly quiet.
“This is for all the time I wasted on you,” she said under her breath. “This is for every lie you told.”
She swung and connected with glass and plastic. The CRUNCH sounded satisfying and the hit was clean and precise. She moved to the left headlight and smashed it with equal skill. Then she dropped the bat and moved to the left front tire.
Chloe had used her pocketknife to cut through rope and licorice vines but had never sliced into a tire. Should she stab or make more of a slashing motion? When she broke through, would it sound like a deafening balloon pop and cause the knife fly out of her hands? She decided to aim for the tire’s sidewall and grip tightly as if she was slicing into a cardboard box. She made three practice motions, but before she could make a real cut, she heard a panicked voice behind her.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Chloe whirled around to find someone about her age with his hands raised in the air. He wore all black and his shirt was untucked. He looked tired. Chloe would later learn that his name was Ephraim and he had just finished back-to-back shifts as a waiter at a nearby restaurant.
“I’m teaching my boyfriend a lesson!” Chloe answered defiantly. “For cheating!”
“But that’s my car!”
“No, it’s not! It’s Sebastian’s.”
“I think I know my own car!”
“I know this car too well. The color, the license plate, everything.”
“You better check the license plate again.”
Chloe scoffed but shuffled to the front of the car for a look at the plate. She expected to see SEBRIZ. Instead, she saw a random combination of letters and numbers.
“Wait, this has to be his!” she cried out. She ran to the back of the car, but the back plate matched the front. Her mouth fell open. “I don’t know what happened. This was supposed to be Sebastian’s.”
By that point, Ephraim circled the car to discover the bat lying on the ground and his busted headlights. “My lights! What did you do?”
Chloe dropped the knife in her hand and blushed a deep read that was obvious, even in the darkness. Words flew rapid-fire from her mouth. “I got confused. I didn’t know there was more than one car like this. I saw him with this fake, gross girl and I went a little crazy.” Chloe reached up to wipe her face and realized she was crying. “Please don’t call the police. I’m not a psycho. I know I look like a total mess but it’s because I was playing softball and because he lied to me so many times.”
Deep down, Ephraim’s heart was very soft, especially when girls cried. “It’s okay,” he calmly said. “I’m not going to call the police.”
“You’re not?” Chloe responded as she sniffed.
“Not as long as you fix my lights.”
“I’ll fix them for sure. You don’t have to worry. I’ll pay for everything. We can go to the dealer tomorrow.”
“Too bad I need headlights right now to drive home.”
“I can drive you home. I’m happy to, no matter where you live.” Chloe wiped her eyes again. “And I’ll pick you up tomorrow morning to get the lights fixed.”
More than anything, Ephraim wanted to return home and lie down. His day started at 5 am and he had been on his feet too long. He examined Chloe in her pitiful and defeated state and decided a ride home was worth the risk. “Let me get your name and all your insurance contact information.”
Chloe gladly handed over everything and Ephraim saved the names and numbers in his phone. Then he collected the bat and knife and held onto them after getting in her car. He kept his phone handy in case he needed to dial 911. The trip to his condo was mostly quiet and Chloe kept her full attention on the road.
“I’ll be back tomorrow, I promise,” she said as he exited the car. “We’ll grab your car and drive straight to the dealer.”
“Okay,” Ephraim said in response, hurrying away.
The next morning, he was not sure if he wanted her to show up or not. True to her promise, she arrived outside his condo at 9 am. She looked remarkably different. Carefully curled hair replaced her softball ponytail. Makeup covered her formerly tearstained face and she wore a classy, figure-flattering dress to prove she was nowhere near being a psycho.
They drove back to Ephraim’s car and then to the VW dealer. A service technician inspected the headlights and said they could be repaired in a couple hours. “Looks like the break is pretty clean. Would have been a lot worse if any body panels got hit.”
“I play a lot of softball, so I’m pretty good with a bat,” Chloe said to lighten the mood.
Ephraim did not respond.
“While they work on the lights, how about I buy you a late breakfast? It’s the least I can do.”
Ephraim reluctantly agreed. As they ate waffles, they discovered they had a lot in common. They both grew up around Phoenix. Ephraim was attending school to become a physical therapist. Chloe worked in a physical therapy office. He could quote thousands of movie lines verbatim. She did the same thing with song lyrics. Ephraim cracked his first smile.
They returned to the dealer and Chloe put the repair costs on her credit card. As they stood awkwardly to say goodbye, one of them said, “Maybe this sounds crazy, but would you like to get together sometime?”
Ephraim eventually took Sebastian’s place on the softball team and things grew more serious from there. A year later, at their wedding reception, Chloe stood up and spoke lovingly about her groom.
“I know we’re meant to be together because we have an incredible meeting story. We began when Ephraim saw me at my messiest, most irrational worst. I got to see him at his sweetest, forgiving best.”
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