The Apartment

What’s the weirdest coincidence you’ve ever experienced?

I probably shouldn’t tell this story, but I am.

Years ago, in the mid-90s, I was in my early 20s and my friend’s band played weekly at a local nightclub on the southside of Atlanta. Occasionally, I’d go hang out and watch the show, and sometimes he’d ask me to come up and do a song or two.

Well, one night I met this older woman. She came up to me and was telling me how much she liked my song, and we ended up talking for awhile about music and stuff. We had some drinks, and later that night I ended up going back to her place.

She told me she used to be a pastor’s wife and that she was recently divorced. I went home the following morning, and that was the last time I ever saw her.

Okay, let’s fast forward to about 2oO4.

I had met a new friend. He was an older guy, but we hit it off, and he was friends with the owner of the sports bar where I played weekly. I’d known him for a few months, and sometimes I’d go over to his house and chill, or we’d go to other bars.

One night, he and his girlfriend came and picked me up, and we went back to her place. As we turned into the apartment complex where she lived, I was like, “Hmm… these look familiar.”

Then it all came back to me.

I realized it was the same apartment complex where the older woman I’d met years earlier had lived.

Then I saw the exact apartment.

So I started telling my friend and his girlfriend the story. I told them about the woman, how I met her, that she said she was a former pastor’s wife, and that I spent that one night with her and never saw her again.

Everyone got super quiet after I finished.

Then my friend goes, “Hey honey, didn’t you used to live in that apartment? And you used to be a preacher’s wife too?”

Dead silence.

And now I’m like…

“Ooo geees.”

She glanced back at me, and that’s when I realized it was her.

Shortly after that, we arrived at her place. It was a different apartment in the same complex where she lived now, but we all went inside and hung out.

It was straight awkward for a little while. 😁

© 2026 Bryan Loia Hudson

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