Hey, I want to tell you up top that this episode is about one-night stands, so it's a little sexier than usual.

The kind of thing you want to wait to listen to until there are only adults around.

It was Valentine's Day, 2020.

This is death, sex, and money.

We kind of hit it off and started kind of canoodling by the fire.

The show from WNYC about the things we think about a lot.

We, you know, just kind of went for it.

And need to talk about more.

Next day, he was off.

I'm Anna Sale.

We just got through Valentine's Day, our annual celebration of romance, usually of the long-term sort, or if not long, at least the sort where you've committed to be someone's sweetheart.

This week, we want to celebrate another really important kind of romance, the very short-term, the one-night stand.

Those moments in your life when someone appeared in a flash, you connected, you enjoyed each other, and then you went your separate ways.

For me, I think of the British guy that I met out in San Francisco one night

when I was in college. It was a time when I was feeling out of sorts, not sure where I fit,

and we started talking. I can't remember about what, but it was easy banter. And then he paused,

looked me straight in the eye, and said, well, you are charming, aren't you?

We never saw each other after that next morning.

I lived off the fumes of that fun, unexpected night for a long time.

The possibility of a one-night stand feels so remote for so many people right now,

maybe because of your life phase or because chance meetings aren't really happening much.

But the memories, they're potent.

...