Different April

I hesitated. It was that "Do I? Don't I?" moment.

He'd offered to get me tickets for the play and laughed when I replied that I already had my seat reserved. Make sure to say hello, he said warmly over the telephone. It'll be good to see you this time around.

I was standing outside after the final curtain call, surrounded by most of my still newly-assembled group. A couple of the others had decided to head back to the hotel, while the rest wanted to meet him with me and discuss what we'd just seen. He was standing within eyesight, talking to another cast member by the curb.

His baseball hat and shorts made me chuckle, as I realized I'd tricked myself into assuming he always walked around in some form of costume. The only other time I'd seen him in off-stage garb had still required him to be, well, on stage.

I sucked it up and walked over, smiling as I approached. He looked at me with a polite smile and, as I began to speak, grinned.

"Hey! You made it!" he said, surprising me as he reached in for a hug. "It's so great to see you. How's the trip going?"

We chatted briefly, much easier than I'd expected, while my friends stood nearby, waiting to approach. We were laughing over last year's missed encounters, that we'd played phone tag nearly every day that week without being able to speak in person. When he asked again about the experience this time around, I beckoned to the group and introduced them.

I worried we were taking up too much of his time, but he seemed excited to be able to chat with everyone about the performance, the theater, the city. He'd attended the same festival years before, so he asked what we all thought of it, with our particularly unique perspective. I briefly explained to the rest that we'd gotten in touch the year before, touching upon the surprise birthday email my director had arranged and the "what the hell, let's see what he says," email I sent shortly before making the first trip.

I left out the fact that I used to sit in the audience those four times his troupe performed back home, smiling with an eye candy crush sort of grin.

We realized it was getting late, we'd been standing outside for longer than we'd realized and that most of us still had pieces to write before the night ended. The rest of the group thanked him for his time and he confidently shook their hands while thanking them for attending.

"If you guys aren't busy at the end of this whole thing, let me know, maybe I can get some people together and we can all go out. It'll be fun." He winked at me. "She's got my number, so have her give me a call."

They smiled happily and moved off. I gave a quick hug, promised to call and said how great it was to be able to hang out for a bit.

"I'm so glad it worked out this time," he replied. "Give me a call later on in the week. It'll be fun. And enjoy yourself!"

As we walked back to the Metro, they thanked me for introducing me and chatted about how nice he was.

He really was, wasn't he?