The Love Letter Agreement

I remember three things when I wake up the next morning, hungover and aching. My favorite sweater, forgotten in the haze and left behind on a bar stool. A drunken conversation with a stranger, touching on things I’ve never mentioned to anyone, a longing for a love letter romance and a soft, sweet future. And finally, a handwritten note with an email address and the words “It’s no hand-penned love letter, but maybe it’s worth a shot.” still clutched in my hand. Maybe today won’t be such a slog after all. 

Dear kind stranger I met in the bar, 

I’m not quite sure what you remember from last night, but if you’re anything like me it’s all a haze, so I feel as though I should reintroduce myself. My name is Ethan, he/him, and I’m a student, studying the English language. I absolutely adore romance novels, Jane Austen got me through high school, but honestly I’ll read anything you put in front of me. That’s probably the reason I chose english, the worst major, as my own. I’m an incredibly responsible person, and I promise I don’t drink nearly as much as I did last night. We’ll just say that was a special occasion. It’s quite hard to talk about myself for this long, so I think I’ll leave the rest in your hands. If you receive this email and decide you’d rather not continue a conversation with a drunk bloke you met by accident, I’ll completely understand it. You don’t even have to reply, you can just send it on over to the trash. And if you do choose to reply, well, then perhaps this could be the start of something. 

Sincerely, 

Ethan

Dear Ethan,

I won’t lie, I was scared I wasn’t going to get an email from you. It had already been a few days and the amount of times I reloaded my email was, well let’s just say it was embarrassing. I thought I misspelled my email. And then I heard from you. Ethan, I’m delighted to make your acquaintance, properly this time. My name is Leo, he/him, and I’m not an english major, though I don't think they're quite as bad as you claim. I specialize in film, cinematography. I was never much into reading, I preferred running wild outside, but I can understand the appeal. Maybe you could recommend something for me to try? I'm sure I'll read anything you put in front of me. I’m, less of a responsible person, and I definitely drink as much as I did last night. Granted it wasn’t much, but it’s the idea that counts. 

What’s your favorite season? This question may seem like it came out of nowhere, but it’s my favorite question to ask someone new. It helps me figure out what kind of person they are, and I’d like to figure you out. Would it be corny to say I felt a special connection that night? Probably, and I’ll probably regret sending this email in a few days. I should shut my mouth, or rather, stop moving my fingers. 

I’d say I’d like to meet you, but if we’re doing this the right way, I think we have to have a few long letters sent before we can have the eventual emotional climax at the end. 

Until then, 

Leo. 

Dear Leo, 

Leo is such a nice name, isn’t it? It’s sophisticated, but still casual. Something you’d expect to hear called out at your local coffee shop. I don't know if we go to the same school or not, but I turn my head every time I hear your name called out in the halls. Honestly I think it’s driving me a bit crazy. Do your friends call you Leopold? Or Leonard? Can I call you Leopold? 

In terms of a book recommendation, Pride and Prejudice is always a good place to start. I can lend you my copy if you’d like, as long as that doesn’t break our “love letter” agreement. I could leave it on a bench somewhere, or give it to a friend. 

My favorite season would have to be spring. There’s nothing better than sitting on a park bench underneath a tree and cracking open a fresh book. Fresh cut grass is always a nostalgic smell and I love the colors that burst out of the ground in the spring. I could write a million poems for spring, does that tell you enough about me? And now it’s your turn, what’s your favorite season? I promise I won't be disappointed if it's not spring. I'm sure I could write poems for other seasons, even the bleak and dreary winter. It's not winter, is it? 

Now, you're a filmmaker, so you must have a favorite kind of movie. Would you mind terribly telling what that would be? I'd like to figure you out as well. 

I apologize if my email sounds positively Elizabethan, I find I quite like getting into character. 

Ethan

Dear Ethan, 

My friends don’t call me Leopold, or Leonard, and I’d prefer if you followed their lead. Leo, I think, suits me just fine. 

Now, I'm afraid I have something to confess. Winter is, I'm fact, my favorite season, but I'd be willing to compromise with fall if that sparks more poetry. I prefer cold weather over warm weather, but I also love the quietness of the season. There’s just too much of everything in the spring, bugs, weather, events, in winter everything stops. You can breathe for a minute, let the world pass around you as the snow falls. Curling up by the fire with a movie or just some music is my park bench equivalent. I admit sometimes the winter feels too long, I suppose there’s something to be said about too much of a good thing, but the first few months are pure bliss. 

I don't think it would be a good idea to have my friends meet you to collect the book, they're already planning our wedding. While I would love for you to meet them someday, I don't think I want to stoke that fire today. They think this is the greatest romance since Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, especially since it all stemmed from an email address. I’m supposed to ask you what flowers you want at our table arrangements, and if you think blue and gold are good theme colors. I think they go wonderfully together, but maybe not for our imaginary wedding. I think I’d like to have some soft greens, but if you like blue and gold, that’s what we’ll do.

I don’t think the genre of movie I watch matters nearly as much as who I watch it with. I’m kidding, I’m a sucker for science fiction. But I do love sharing movies with people, you could even say it’s my love language. I mentioned before that I love curling up by the fire to watch one, that’s even better when there’s someone there next to me, someone who is living the same life as me for the next 2 or so hours. It’s comforting, not being alone while you’re escaping to that other world. 

I'd love to escape with you someday. 

Leo

To my dearest Leopold, 

A winter walk, a moonlit trail

Like a dream world I visit without fail

Fog rises, heat the ice wants to smother 

Two cold bodies, looking for warmth in each other 

A winter walk, a moonlit avenue

The only thing that matters, is me with you 

Two chilled bodies, snow they try to fight 

Warmed by the quiet in the still of the night

I think I’ve found winter can be quite poetic after all, 

Ethan 

My dearest Leopold, 

It seems I got so wrapped up in my poetic dreams I forgot to answer most of the questions from your last email. I agree, blue and gold are a lovely combination, but perhaps some greens would be best for our wedding. We are having it in spring, after all. We can fight about this later but I know I’ll win. If you’d like, you could tell your friends to arrange a meeting between mine, because as of right now it seems as though we'll have to get married twice. They’ve got the venue sorted out and everything. I’m sure they could get more work done together, and we can be married swiftly. Or we could elope. That seems very romantical. 

As for the book, tomorrow I’ll be out in town. I think I’ll leave it at the cafe, next to the bar where we first met. The table by the window, I’ll be gone by 12:05 exactly, so you can arrive at that moment and not risk losing the book, or running into me. I hope you enjoy the book! I left my annotations in, it would've been too much trouble to remove and sort them, so I hope they don’t distract you too much. Feel free to leave some of your own, but take care not to mess up the order of them. I’ll send the same sticky notes I used along with it so they all look the same. 

What’s your family like? I’m not sure if that’s too personal a question for the 3rd, technically 4th, email, so feel free to ignore it if you want to. I’ve got a younger sister, she’s 12 and absolutely adorable. She wants to be a doctor/ballerina/president when she grows up, and I’m sure she’ll do all of that and more. I live in an apartment near my school, but I visit her and my parents most weekends. It’s only a short bus ride away, but it was too much to make every single day. So now I live with three roommates during the week and my family on the weekend. How do you spend your time? 

Remember the book, tomorrow at 12:05 exactly. No sooner and hopefully no later.  

Ethan

Dear Ethan, 

While I love being “your dearest”, I will say I’m not as thrilled about being called Leopold. It makes me sound stuffy, and quite honestly, like a douche. If I see the word Leopold one more time in an email, I’m afraid I may have to do unspeakable things to your book, like make meaningless annotations. I love reading your thoughts by the way, it’s like looking into your soul, watching you read it and react to it all over again. And your handwriting is beautiful, it makes me sad we’re not writing actual letters so I could see it all the time. 

Speaking of the book, I have something to confess. I made it to the cafe a few minutes earlier, and I did catch a glimpse of you. Please don’t be mad, I never broke the Love Letter Agreement™, think of it as me peeking through your window, all alone up in your estate. I was admiring you from afar, which fits with our theme. Besides, we’ve already technically met before, even if neither of us remembers it that much. I remember you this time, though, and I can’t wait to finally, truly meet you one day. 

I have a small family, I’m an only child living with my dad. I live near my school, so I bike every day. My bike hasn’t been stolen yet, and hopefully it never will be. My dad and I get along great, he was the one who got me into movies in the first place, I made my first movie with him and it changed my life forever. Clearly, because I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing it. What about you? I know you love books, and reading, but what do you want to do with your life? 

I await your reply, 

Leo

Dear Leo, 

I promise you I'm not mad, I'm almost regretful. You were right there, right there near me and I didn't even know it! I would've liked to meet you then, but I understand we're still waiting for that climax. Could that be something that happens soon, though? Despite only really knowing you for an hour or so, I miss you. Quite a bit, really. I love reading your words but I want to hear your voice again. And I’d like to see your face again before the wedding, which apparently is happening in a few months. I thought I’d committed it to memory, but my brain seems to want to confuse me, all your features have begun to blend together and I’m not sure if I’m remembering your actual face or the face I’ve made for you. That’s not odd, is it? 

Now I’m curious about this video. Was it a scripted video or was it a family video, capturing a memory? Does it have a little baby Leo in it, because that I’ll have to see. I’d like to see anything you’ve made. In terms of my future, I’m not entirely sure. I’d love to write poetry until the sun rises, but I’m not sure that’ll put food on the table every day. My parents told me to go into something that interests me, and I can figure it out later. So that’s exactly what I did, though I still haven’t figured out what it is I should do. Maybe I should get into scriptwriting, and we can be a dynamic duo in the film world. Wouldn’t that be nice? 

I’m glad you’re enjoying the book! It’s one of my favorites. Have you added any annotations of your own? I’ll be interested to see them once I get the book back, preferably hand delivered this time. Only when you’ve finished it, of course. 

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, 

Ethan

Dear Ethan, 

I’m sure you’ll go on to write amazing and ground-breaking things, and it would be my honor to be a part of your dynamic duo. Perhaps our first film can capture this adventure we’re on, a modern twist on a classic romance story. I’m sure we’ll head off straight to Hollywood, and we’ll cast Ryan Reynolds and Zac Efron as the leads. Or whoever you think could pull off our story. 

As for the book, I’ll admit, it’s not exactly my speed. The books I read, on the rare occasion I do read them, aren’t exactly this genre. But I love reading it, while this may be embarrassing to admit, because I feel as though I’m reading it with you. I desperately wish you were, and this is the closest I’ll get. I miss you too, more than I could ever put into words. Typing it out doesn’t do it any justice. I want to tell you how I feel without a screen in between us. Maybe someday soon, I’ll be able to look at your face, not from a distance. 

Eternally waiting for the emotional climax, 

Leo

My dearest Leo, 

Screw the Love Letter Agreement™. It’s keeping me from you, and it’s not worth it. You’re a thousand times better than those old love letter romances, and every day of my life that goes by without you in it feels like a waste. I know things might not be the same in person, I’m used to having time to think up responses to your messages, I may be boring in real life, but I don’t care. I hope you don’t care either. I want you in my life for as long as I can have you. 

Yours, 

Ethan 

Dearest Ethan, 

I’ll be in that same bar tomorrow, 6pm. I’ll count the seconds until then, every one of them spent hoping you’ll walk through that door, and that the light will shine on you the same way it did that night. It made you look like an angel, did I ever tell you that? I want to see you again, I want to wake up next to you every morning for the rest of my life. There is no universe where I will find you boring, and no universe where I will not be waiting for you tomorrow. I just hope you’ll find your way there as well. 

You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, and I’ll always wait for you. 

Yours, eternally, 

Leopold