Finding Love Through A Pandemic

When the news of the Covid-19 shutdown hit, Gavin was devastated. Unfortunately, Covid-19 put a damper on everything. He had just been cast in a Broadway production and now he wasn’t even sure if the production would ever see the light of day. For weeks, he sat in his tiny apartment that he shared with his sister, Danni and lived in a state of utter depression.

The only comfort Gavin got, was watching the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen dance on the roof of the apartment across from his. This woman was dark-skinned like him, tall, and thin. She would use the side of the building as a ballet bar and do her stretches, then she’d do jumps and turns as if she was performing a prestigious piece. Gavin found her mesmerizing to watch. She was truly the only good thing that came out of the lockdown. He had never noticed her before lockdown and very likely never would.

“Why don’t you ever call out to her and introduce yourself?” Danni asked, joining Gavin on the roof.

“I don’t want to scare her. If I make her lose focus, she could hurt herself.”

“Clearly it’s far better to be a stalker than attempt to meet someone,” Danni teased, rolling her eyes.

Gavin continued to watch as she spun and leapt across the roof. For a slight moment, he thought she glanced in his direction. He knew he should look away, but he couldn’t.

The next morning, Danni came bursting through his door and excitedly jumped on his bed. “I’ve got a surprise for you,” she sang out with much enthusiasm. Gavin sat up and crossed his arms with a bit of annoyance. “I have set it up for the mystery girl and you to meet. I left a bottle of merlot with a glass and a note to do a zoom meeting with you and have a drink. If she does, you’ll finally be able to meet her. If she doesn’t… well at least you’ll know where you stand with her.”

“You did what!” Gavin roughly rubbed his face and tried to make sense of what she was saying. “I can’t believe you did this.”

“It’ll be great. Think about how romantic it could be meeting during a worldwide pandemic and finding a way to make it work anyway.” Danni had always been a romantic at heart.

Gavin stressed about this potential meeting. What if she wasn’t who he envisioned her to be? What if he didn’t live up to her expectations? What if she didn’t meet him at all?

He took some time to look his best, which he hadn’t done much of for weeks. With his laptop fully charged and tucked under his arm, he took a deep breath. Danni straightened the collar of his shirt and brushed some wrinkles off his shoulders. “Good luck!” she exclaimed, smiling at him excitedly.

Gavin walked the stairs and went to his usual spot. Danni had set up a small table and chair for him to sit at and had a bottle of merlot on ice for him. His heart nearly burst from beating so fast when he saw her emerge on the roof. She seemed quite confused when she noticed the similar setup as his own. He watched as she read the note Danni had left. She glanced around and her eyes spotted Gavin, she only stared at him for a moment before she disappeared.

Gavin panicked. He was sure she had been freaked out and decided against meeting him. He was devastated and almost closed his laptop to leave when he heard the familiar chime from zoom. He glanced back at her and saw her looking over at him.

He quickly tried to compose himself before accepting her into the zoom. When her face appeared on the screen, his first thought was how beautiful she was up close. Her skin practically glowed in the gentle sunlight. Her eyes were a deep brown and full of expression. He was blown away by her beauty.

“Hello,” she greeted timidly.

“Hi,” Gavin breathed nervously. “I’m Gavin.”

“Sienna,” she introduced, still sounding nervous. “I still can’t believe I’m doing this.”

Gavin chuckled lightly. “Same. I have to admit, my sister is the one who set this up. I’ve sort of watched you from afar for a while now.”

“I know.”

“You know?” he asked shocked.

She laughed, which filled Gavin with joy. “You are quite obvious. I don’t mind, though. I sort of enjoy having an audience member. I never thought you’d actually want to meet me, though.”

“I’m happy to be your audience as long as you’d like. You are captivating to watch. I don’t know if I would have made it through this lockdown if it wasn’t for you. Watching you sort of lifted my spirits. I’m sure that sounds really weird.”

She laughed again and shook her head, “Not at all. I’m glad I was able to bring some joy into your life. Right now, we all need a little something to bring our spirits up.”

“I’m also a performer. On Broadway. Well, sort of. I was just cast in one of the most exciting upcoming productions right before the lockdown. It was devastating to all of us. I’ve been training my entire life for this moment and it was crushed by a pandemic.”

She nodded her head with a look of sadness. “I suppose it was the same for me, too. It’s difficult for a woman of color to be cast in ballets. It doesn’t matter how well we dance or how perfect our technique is. It’s all about the look the director is after and it usually doesn’t include a woman of color. Misty Copeland opened a lot of doors for other African American ballet dancers, but it’s still not quite enough. It’s been my life’s dream to dance in an American Ballet Theatre production. Here I am about to make my dream a reality and everything came crashing down in an instant.”

Gavin felt her pain. He knew exactly what she was feeling. “We seem to have been hit in similar ways by the pandemic. Should we have a drink to celebrate how terrible everything is right now?”

She giggled and nodded her head. They both poured a glass of the merlot wine and raised it in a toast. “To Covid!” she cheered.

“To Covid!” Gavin repeated. They both took a drink and sat the glass down next to them.

“Were you upset with your sister for setting this meeting up?”

“No, definitely not. As a matter of fact, I’m glad she did. I owe her big time.”

Sienna grinned happily. “I suppose I owe her as well. Hopefully I’ll have the opportunity to meet her someday.”

“I’m sure she’d love that,” he said, feeling more thrilled about their meeting. He wanted to know everything about her. “Can you tell me something unique about yourself?”

Sienna thought about it for a moment before answering. “I’m a big fan of eighties rock music.”

“Really?” Gavin laughed. He never would have thought her a fan of rock music. “Have you ever done a dance to rock music?”

“On my own time, but never for anyone to see.”

“Would you ever be willing to show me?”

“Perhaps,” she said with a shy grin.

He took another drink to hide his enthusiasm. “We seem to have had similar childhoods. I spent most of my time in a dance studio, at voice lessons, or on a stage.”

“What sort of dance did you learn?” she asked.

“Mostly jazz, a little bit of tap and ballroom. I did take a year of ballet, but it was tough. I could never understand how girls could balance on their tiptoes. My feet would hurt so bad after class.”

“Once you get used to it, you learn to deal with the pain.”

“Maybe when all this lockdown is over, I’ll give ballet a second chance,” he suggested.

“I’d be happy to give you some lessons. If you want, anyway.”

“I’d like that.” Gavin was feeling a connection with Sienna, something he’d never truly felt with anyone else.

“Tell me something no one else knows about you. Something not even your sister knows.”

Gavin thought about it and wondered if he should admit what he considered telling her. He decided to take a chance. “I secretly dressed as a female character in a high school play when the actress who was supposed to play the part didn’t show up. She was one of only a handful of black kids at our school. It was a minor role and this girl complained about not getting the lead throughout the entire rehearsal. We all knew she was given the smaller role because of her skin color. She truly was the better option for the lead, but growing up in a predominately white neighborhood, we never got the leading roles if we were cast as anything at all. I guess her way of showing the director her anger was by not showing up on opening night. I dressed up as her character and no one never knew it wasn’t her. I had to kiss a guy too. I never told him.”

Sienna burst into laughter causing Gavin to laugh along with her. “Are you serious?” Gavin nodded his head and pursed his lips to stop from laughing. Sienna covered her face as if she was feeling the embarrassment right along with him. “I can’t even imagine how terrifying that must have been. What if he had found out? How do you think he would have reacted?”

“It was only a peck. I’m sure he probably would have tried to kill me, though. I wasn’t about to let the show be ruined by one person. I had to do what I had to do.”

“You definitely have a lot of guts to pull something like that off,” she said, still trying to control her laughing.

“What about you? Any embarrassing stories you want to share?”

“I once threw up on stage,” she admitted. Gavin’s eyes grew wide as she revealed the story. “I must have been eight. It was the Nutcracker performance we did every year. I was cast as a mouse. My stomach had been hurting most of the day before the opening night. I thought it was because of my excitement or my nerves. As we got closer to hitting the stage, I started to feel sicker, and I got really dizzy. I went out and danced as best I could, trying hard not to miss a beat. At the ending pose, I couldn’t hold it in any longer and puked right there on the stage in front of everyone. It was humiliating.”

“That’s awful. You must have been devastated.”

“I almost stopped dancing afterwards. But my dance instructor told me a similar story from when she was little and encouraged me to keep going.”

“I’m glad she did.”

“Me too,” she said with a smile. “Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here meeting you.”

Gavin felt a joy inside of him for the first time in weeks. He knew there was something special between them. All thanks to a pandemic and a couple bottles of Merlot.

The two of them talked throughout the night and had a couple glasses of wine. When their laptops started to die, they said goodnight and promised to meet again the next night, which they did and every night after. Gavin would watch her train and on occasion join her in her training from afar. They spent hours on the phone talking and getting to know each other better. She was truly the light to a very dim existence during lockdown. They had plans to meet as soon as lockdown ended, but there never seemed to be an end in sight. Would the pandemic ever end?