Page 25 of It Started With a Scarf

"I saw you at a bus stop that day," he said. "You were close enough to my apartment that I saw you through my window—I'm on the third floor. You were alone at first, but then there was a guy talking to you. You looked nervous, and then you took off, going across the street. But something happened with your scarf. It was hanging behind you, and he reached out for it. Then you walked off, and he hid it from you. He put it behind his back."

"You're kidding!" she said with a serious, stunned expression.

"No. He held it behind himself, and you walked off. I thought he was going to hand it back to you, but he didn’t. So, I ran down the stairs and across the street in my undershirt and bare feet, and I took it right out of his hand. What, Marley? Are you crying?"

"I'm sorry, I’m just happy and thankful." She was being lighthearted and smiling, and the tears just easily fell from her eyes. She smiled and wiped them away. "I'm just so thankful you did that. I'm thinking about all the times I've prayed that I could get it back, and I just never thought… I had given up hope that I would ever see it again."

She picked up the scarf from where it was hanging on her chest and gazed at it closely.

"I learned to knit to replicate it, and I'm checking it out to see how close I've been. The ladies at the yarn store are going to be so happy to see the real deal. They've been helping me try to match it. All we had to go on was pictures and my memories, and yarn just feels so different once you knit it up than it does in the ball… I'm sorry. I shouldn’t get started about knitting. Back to the story."

She set the scarf back in its place and stared at him, her eyes still glossy.

"What did you tell that guy when you went down there? I can't believe you caught him. I can't believe you did it barefoot!"

"You should have seen me," he said smiling at her. "I was flying down those stairs. I think I almost knocked a lady's wig off in the lobby."

"Really?"

"No, but I was trucking. I moved so fast I didn't even feel the cold."

She clutched the scarf as she continued to look at him. "I don’t know how to thank you, Dominic. It's insane that you saw me through your window. I can't even believe this story."

"I know, I watched out for you so much when it first happened. I kept thinking you would come back to that bus stop."

"Do you mean that same night? I did go back. I went, but I didn't stay long. I was concentrating on the buses I took home. I thought I lost it on a bus. I searched busses all night."

"Oh, gosh," he said, imagining what she had gone through.

"Double Decker, bro! I'm sorry to interrupt, but can I grab a pic since you're not eating yet?"

"Yeah, sure, man," Dominic said. A guy stood next to Dominic and Dominic posed as the guy took a selfie of the two of them.

Dominic and his brother did the same hand signal when they posed for photographs, an inward-facing peace sign, which was a 2 for the twins.

"That's awesome, bro, go Cats! I can't believe I ran into you. I love your dad, bro. What's with the traitor, though? She a spy or something?"

"Oh, no, man, she's cool. We're gonna toss it in the fire later… roast some marshmallows."

The guy laughed and shook Dominic's hand. "Thanks for the picture, man."

"No problem," Dominic said.

He turned a little as the guy walked away. It wasn't rare for him to get approached in Chicago, but it was always low-key.

"Am I the traitor he was talking about?" Marley asked quietly when he walked away. She had a worried expression, and he smiled at her.

"You are. Your sweater. It's killing me, actually, I was trying to ignore it. Notre Dame's all right as a college, I guess, but they're our rivals in Football."

"Oh, really? Oh, shoot. You played them at your school?"

"Yes, we did," he said, smiling since that was an understatement. It was a gigantic rivalry.

"I'm so sorry. A guy at my old job gave me this."

A wave of jealousy hit him. "Was it because he liked you?"

"No, it was because it was too small for him. He was getting rid of it."

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