For the Hopeful Romantics
I had this idea in my head as I was driving home from work, as I do often - what if I created a rom-com with classic love songs for my fellow hopeful romantics on Valentine’s Day?… so here it goes. Playlist to follow at the end.
I’m excited for the day when Love Calls…
I imagine I meet you at a record store and our eyes meet for the first time and we both experience Happy Feelin’s. We speak about our favorite artists and the levitating experience of witnessing a live band before exchanging numbers.
The following week we go on our first date. You take me to a concert hall where your favorite live band is performing; the same band we spoke about upon meeting for the first time. I wear a red dress and I can feel through your constant gazes, you try to refrain from saying My My My, because you don’t want lust overshadow a blooming connection. While nervous at first, we dance the night away as if we’ve known each other for years, even making fans throughout the night.
Soon we begin to spend more moments together, with each time we spend it’s almost Never Too Much. Sometimes we see a movie, other times we go to dinner, but our favorite thing to do is to take A Long Walk. We talk and observe the trees, not noticing that seasons begin changing. This feels different. This is consistent. This is easy.
When we aren’t going on dates or walks, we chat on the phone while preparing dinner or away with friends and family. Again, it is easy and timeless, as if Nothing Even Matters.
Your friends begin asking what keeps you so busy these days and you let them in on the privacy they should know. You refer to me as your Cococure.
My friends and family ask me the same. I tell mine I can’t find the words, but you feel like the beginning of Maxwell’s Fortunate… woooooooooh ooh oooh oooh oooh woo woo woo wow woooo… something about Maxwell, intentional and sensual. All the while, us not knowing we describe each other to our closest people like a Maxwell song.
Now it’s been fall, winter and spring is ending. With the seasons changing and summer ramping up all I can think is “Why Don’t We Fall in Love?”. We haven’t said the words, but it’s there. I know it’s there.
I kept us waiting because you understood how important it is to me that this feels right. You take me back to the record store where we met and ask me, “Will you be my girlfriend?” as Snoh Aalegra’s “I Want You Around” plays in the background. I laugh and tell you it took long enough. We kiss and head to a local bar to drink, dance, and celebrate our new relationship status. While it felt like forever, it felt right we moved at our pace. The DJ plays Floetry’s “Say Yes” and the night takes a turn for the better. We are no longer laughing or yapping, we are still knowing what’s about to take place.
We head to your place in the city and there’s cake and balloons as another surprise to celebrate me being your girlfriend. I thank you, but it can wait. I finally feel safe to explore each other physically, and you tell me I’m such a sight to see in the month of June. Reminding me of one of my favorite songs from Usher, “Love You Gently”. All I can think is can we chase the moon forever?
Gentle, but masculine and smooth like Crown Royal on ice we had earlier. It’s nasty and sacred. It was well worth the wait. You’re no longer the guy that nerds out over music with me anymore, you’re my man.
In the morning as we lay in bed, you let me know that this isn’t physical and All You (I) Do is think about me. You said you’d been planning this for a while, but didn’t want to rush things and risk losing me. I told you that wouldn’t have happened, but I’m glad we waited. You get up to make me breakfast before taking me to the airport, as I head on a girls trip. You hug and kiss me goodbye and say “I love you”. You laugh and say ooops, I tell you “I know you meant it!” followed by “I love you too”. All I can think is how sneaky you are to pull this right before a girls trip. How can I hide this joy from them?!
We begin on a journey of merging our lives for the next year. We start taking our own trips across the world to places we spoke about on our first date; Tanzania, Joshua Tree, and Italy, just to name a few. We meet each other’s family and friends and again, things are easy for once. Easy and we both Don’t Ever Wonder.
The following spring, we head to the Oregon Coast, one of my favorite places to visit. You ask me wear the red dress from our first date. You then tell me that night you felt like Johnny Gill. I laugh and my intuition begins going crazy, because I remember thinking about how you looked at me that night and it felt like that song. I then think, “could this be the day?” but I allow the night to unfold without being in my head. After a nice dinner, we return to our Airbnb and under the stars, you plan a private proposal playing the song at the record store when we first met, When Somebody Loves You Back. I never knew you remembered the song playing, but I quickly say yes. I begin sobbing uncontrollably because the little girl in me got her wish, but you hold me and we dance to what is officially our song.
While we moved slow in the beginning, we marry less than 6 months later on my family’s property, surrounded by our favorite people. My favorite memory of the night is singing We Are One in unison like a choir. A choir comprised of those who have supported us both individually, and will now support us together as a we begin life as a married couple. It was intimate, it was Black AF, it was a night many would speak about for years.
After our loved ones leave, I ask you How Does it Make You Feel? You describe to me every feeling you’ve felt from the day we met, up until now and assure me, You (I) Can’t Stop and won’t stop Loving Me (You).
Unfortunately all of this was just a figment of my imagination, you’re a Distant Lover I suppose…
This was something different, but fun to write. Let me know your thoughts and share this with a fellow music lover and a hopeful romantic this Valentine’s Day. As always, thanks for reading. Please like, comment and subscribe if you feel inclined. Until next time. 🥰
Originally posted on Substack on February 14, 2026 https://thebrianadionne.substack.com/p/for-the-hopeful-romantics
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