It's raining in love

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.

Richard Brautigan