'Romance is for suckers,' that's what I've always said. I've always enjoyed women but just for sex and I've been lucky enough not to need to enter into a relationship to get all the sex I've wanted. I'd pick up a girl somewhere, like a bar or a grocery store and sometimes-even bookstores. We'd have sex a few times and then I'd stop seeing her. When you operate that way, you avoid all the entanglements and it keeps you free.
Then I met Lonnie and my whole life changed. I don't know what it was about her but she had me from the first time I talked to her. She is pretty but there's no way you could call her beautiful. It's the same with her figure, which is more toward slim and athletic than voluptuous. It must have something to do with her smile because I think I would do anything just to see her smile at me. There's a sweetness and honesty in her face that creates a desire in me to make her happy. Her humor shows in her pale blue eyes that I believe my art teacher would have called cerulean. Her blond hair turns to gold as the sun shines on it.
I met her when she volunteered to help with a blood drive at my work. I felt like I was doing a good deed as I donated blood for a fellow employee who was having major surgery and here she was giving of her time to help someone she didn't know. When I asked her how she got stuck doing this all day the smile she gave me melted my heart. She told me it made her feel good inside to help people and that I should try it. I stammered some lame line like; I'd try anything if I could do it with her. She said something about the next Sunday, I said OK, and then she said it's a date then. This was how I ended up at a homeless shelter giving out soup when I could have been home watching football. What can I say, I loved it, she was so much fun to be with, and every time I saw that smile as she gave some bum some soup I swear it fed my soul more than she fed the bums.
Because I had been such a good sport at the soup kitchen, she agreed to let me take her to an early dinner. I went home jubilated and the first thing I did was make reservations at a new French restaurant located in a loft downtown. I knew it was going to cost me a bundle but it was worth it and I wanted to impress her. Dressed in a suit and tie along with a dozen roses I arrived, right on time. Lonnie said she loved the flowers and invited me into her kitchen as she put them in water. I guess I never noticed what girls did with flowers but I watched Lonnie as she looked for the right vase and then as she arraigned them just right. I swear she was humming as she worked. She told me I looked handsome and I told her she looked beautiful. I meant it she did look beautiful, she had on, what the girls call, a simple black dress. I noticed a touch of red on her cheeks and red lips that looked so kissable. Then with the dark blue eye makeup to go with her pale blue eyes, she looked perfect.
My plan for the perfect date was ruined as soon as we walked into the restaurant. Somehow, they couldn't find my name on the reservation list and when that was finally solved, they stuck us in the corner where the only view was of a downtown street corner. It just got worse, you could tell the waitperson was looking down his nose at us and could care not a fig about our dining experience. Cocktails took forever to arrive and were wrong when they got there. I sat there looking out the window feeling nervous because I didn't want to say anything stupid. Lonnie broke the silence first,
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
I asked her what might that be, and she replied,
