I think I have found Heaven on Earth. If so, whether I am truly that "liโl devil" you always joked I was, or not, I feel like a living angel. It all started when Joe, the man I told you I have been living with recently, came home from work the other day.
I wish we had the time for you to meet him. I will be sending you a photo so you can see why I joke that, at 6'4", and with arms of steel, if my "Giant Giuseppe," as I call him, holds his arms straight out, I can use them as chin up bars being built as I am. It's incredible, though, how for a man so athletically strong, my bear is as gentle sometimes as a lamb.
Anyway, the other day, he was exceptionally happy as he almost bounced through the door without touching the floor. I don't think he took a single breath before he blurted out, "You will never believe it!!! I swear, you will never believe it!!! I got the Ponce de Leon assignment. I got it!! I got the assignment! They took a look at the plans for the project, they felt mine was best, and O'Hallahan chose me."
I knew this was Joe's dream of a lifetime. His company was one of the largest developers of time sharing resorts in the world. They wanted to develop a new resort on an island called Isla de Ponce de Leon, an island that according to all Joe spoke about it, had very few inhabitants. It was named after the explorer who discovered the โFountain of Youth.โ
โPeople can discover their own Fountain of Youth, and be young at heart, again, even at 90,โ Joe laughed as he described what had been a virtually unnoticed speck in the Pacific. It was easy for his company to purchase all the land from the native inhabitants, and turn what he called his โIsla DโAmor; the Island of Love," into "the foremost romantic hideaway spot of the world."
The natural flora, the tropical palms, and those gargantuan pink flowers Joe brought home after his first visit, were breathtaking. My hero, the love of my life, had built tremendously popular time shares for "lovers of all ages" in Cancun, San Juan, Vegas, the Poconos, and elsewhere. And with it, he build a tremendous reputation for himself.
Nothing, though, compared to this assignment of building a resort, where, as he explained, โthe princes and the paupers can find their separate hideaways.โ The sun seemed to always shine. And when it set, or greeted a new dawn, it created a panorama no Renaissance man nor modern artist could capture.
Yes, this was HIS dream of a lifetime. But, as I looked into the lipid blue eyes of joy from the man I had gotten to know and love these past four months, my heart sank. It would take a year or two, maybe more, for the final project. I didn't know if I could bear what for me would be the torture of his being several thousand miles away for so many long stretches of time.
I tried so damn hard to hold back the tears, asking myself "Why now? Why me? I have waited all my life for this...why now?" I turned away so he could not see the tears. Choking back as many as I could, I simply said, "That's great. It is what you always wanted."
Joe walked over to me, and turned me to face him. In that baritone voice that so many times made my world stand still, lost in time, he reassured me, "No, it is only part of what I always wanted."
His thumbs went to my eyes, by now filled with tears that flowed freer than the waves upon the shores of Isla de Ponce de Leon. He brushed the corner of my moist lids and my cheeks with his hand. That soft, delicate sweep of his digits against the tender flesh of my face somehow, no matter how stormy the weather, always seemed to bring a silver lining to my cloud.
His eyes burned a trail deeply into my soul as he asserted, "I am looking at what I have always wanted, Jackie. I have longed all my life for someone who can love me, someone who could be more than a lover, more than a friend, more than my best friend. I need you as I have never needed anyone in the world, because you are my world.
"I won't let that go," he told me, and for the first time I was beginning to know that big boys do cry as he held back tears of his own. "I spoke to the boss. I need an administrative assistant. I need someone who knows public relations, and can woo a crowd. I need you, Jackie, more than you know. I will not leave my heart on the other side of the world. The company is willing to pay you what you make now at Chambers, Porter & O'Toole.
"Jackie, I know it is so far from your family, but...โ he stammered. I could tell, as he quivered, the fear inside of him that he would lose me was as nightmarish a thought as it was for me to be without him. He tried to compose himself, as that Adamโs Apple of his seemed to become as large as an orchard, โI know you'd be leaving your friends, your family, for so long a time...andโฆ"