Love Letters

There’s no logical reason to be scared.

Unfortunately for you, there are plenty of illogical reasons.

Maybe you should just hit that check box. That way, even if she’s disgusted by you, at least you can save yourself some embarrassment.

Then again, if you’re worried that she’ll find your words to be so abhorrent, should you even bother? The absolute last thing you’d want to do is ruin her day.

It’s her own fault. All her fault, in fact; if she wasn’t so pretty, you wouldn’t feel so compelled to tell her. Pretty doesn’t do it justice. She’s beautiful. There we go, you have to think about your word choice – maybe then she won’t be so disgusted by your shitty letter.

That ‘Secret Admirer” checkbox is still staring at you. The problem with that, however, is that the whole reason you even want to send her this letter is because you can’t stop thinking about her. Selfishly, you want her to know it’s coming from you – even if you’re terrified.

There’s this theory about airports where the high stress of travel tricks your brain into seeing people as more attractive; it’s also known as the misattribution of arousal. The only difference here is that you aren’t looking at Xiaoting in an airport, and you aren’t stressed – at least, you weren’t right until you decided you’re sending her a letter.