Rain Check

“You want to grab some coffee?” a friend asks. 

But the weather is gloomy and it looks as if it might storm.  So you yell, “Rain check!”

But what exactly do you mean by this? 

You might mean that you want to check to see if it’s raining outside before you go so you can grab your new rain boots and rain coat.  Maybe you’ll even grab that old rain hat, from way back when people used to wear rain hats.

Or maybe you meant it to sound more like, “Rain? Check!” because you already know it’s raining and rain just happens to be your favorite weather condition.  If that’s the case, maybe you wanted your friend to recognize that the only reason you said yes was because it was raining, and that, without the rain, you wouldn’t have bothered to leave the house.  Hopefully your friend knows you well enough to laugh and move on without being too hurt by your somewhat offensive implications.

Or you could’ve been trying to call your friend’s attention to an actual check made of rain, which is pretty impressive in its own right and is unrelated to the coffee date.  If you did see a check made of rain, it makes sense that you would yell about it because how does it even exist?  You should probably find a way to document it before the magic spell wears off and you’re left with just a medium-sized puddle.  Because once that happens, you can’t cash the check and you’ll potentially be out a considerable amount of money.

Most likely, though, you meant that you wanted a rain check on the coffee date, which means you wanted to get it another time instead.  Or maybe you don’t actually like your “friend” at all and you just continually ask for a rain check on everything they invite you to with no intention of ever really hanging out.  In which case, I apologize for ruining your plan (which is definitely ruined because that “friend” is probably the one who sent you this story as a joke—but secretly they sent it because they suspect this has been your plan all along).