The secret of the secret admirer

Imagine this: You’re a single woman, and you get an unmarked package in the mail. Inside is a lovely lacy something and an unsigned note: “Wear it to the Buckeye, 7:30 tonight.” And so you put it on, and head to the bar, which is packed. You don’t know who sent you that lingerie — but only you and he know what you have on underneath your dress. To quote Paris (sorry), that’s hot!

Well, that never happened to me, but it happened to a woman my friend knows. The lingerie wearer never found out who sent it to her, and that alone can fuel many a fantasy.

I love the idea of a secret admirer. There’s a certain romanticism in walking though life knowing that someone is attracted to you from afar. It’s probably why I love reading the Missed Connection section of Craigslist. So much hope! So much earnestness! So much drama!

I think I may have had a few secret admirers in grade school — you know, the unsigned Valentine in the days before you had to give a Valentine to all 32 kids in class — but none since. But then last year, the oddest thing happened.

I got a delivery of a beautiful flowering plant to my office. At first, I thought it was from a client needing me to hop-to a project. In my line of work, I often get goodies delivered so I can do my creative stuff to them. But there was no paperwork enclosed, no return address, no request for a design idea or a descriptive blurb or anything. Nothing. Just a beautiful plant in a beautiful pot in a box delivered to me.

“So,” my co-workers teased, “Who’s the Romeo?”

“I honestly don’t know.”

And I didn’t. I was seeing two guys casually then, and flirting with a few more online, but none of them hit me as the “I’ll-surprise-her-with-a-flower-just-because” kinda guy. And, of course, it’s not like I could ask them outright either (even though they all knew there was no exclusivity in any of the “relationships”), because it might be embarrassing.

What could I do? I took the plant home, placed it on my dining room table, and still get immense pleasure from it every time I walk past it or water it.

So, today, Valentine’s Day, I say, “Thank you” to my secret admirer. And believing in the pay-it-forward kind of thinking, I plan to send a little something to someone I admire (secretly, of course). How cool if we all do something like that!