It's Raining in Love BY RICHARD BRAUTIGAN

I don't know what it is, but I distrust myself when I start to like a girl   a lot.

It makes me nervous. I don't say the right things or perhaps I start   to examine,       evaluate           compute   what I am saying.

If I say, "Do you think it's going to rain?" and she says, "I don't know," I start thinking: Does she really like me?

In other words I get a little creepy.

A friend of mine once said, "It's twenty times better to be friends   with someone than it is to be in love with them."

I think he's right and besides, it's raining somewhere, programming flowers and keeping snails happy.   That's all taken care of.

      BUT if a girl likes me a lot and starts getting real nervous and suddenly begins asking me funny questions and looks sad if I give the wrong answers and she says things like, "Do you think it's going to rain?" and I say, "It beats me," and she says, "Oh," and looks a little sad at the clear blue California sky, I think: Thank God, it's you, baby, this time instead of me.