Movie Date Night

[paradigm88]

I'd meant to share this tale a long time ago. But looking back, I never did put pen to paper...

My wife and I hadn't done a solo movie date in a while, but there was a movie she wanted to see back in January, so we took an evening and went out for dinner and a movie. We chose a theater where they'd moved from stadium seats to big plush recliners, and we ended up with a row to ourselves.

I don't think we put the recliners up until close to the start of the movie. My wife was date-night casual, so to speak; she'd worn a cardigan and a modest skirt, black tights, and her favorite bow flats. They're so broken-in, she sometimes struggles to keep them on as she walks.

But just before the movie, she was letting her flats pop off her heels. Wordlessly, she discreetly swung her left foot off the recliner and quietly let her shoe fall to the floor. She returned her foot to the recliner, carefully slipped her toes into her other loose flat, and plucked it from her toes so she could set it on the floor, too. Then she returned her foot to the recliner.

I'd have loved it if she just wiggled her toes through the movie. But instead, she draped her wool coat over her legs. At least I knew she wasn't wearing her shoes under there.

Afterward, she lowered the recliner and slipped her flats on once we were ready to leave. We went out to dinner after, and while I'd hoped we would end up with a booth, they sat us at a table instead, more in the middle of the room. It was quiet in there, but she wasn't about to just go shoeless in plain sight, and I had to settle for a few nudges and the feeling of her toes on my shoe.