When my wife and I divorced, she got the primary residence in Delaware and I got the vacation home in Florida. Both places were supposed to be sold but a crashing housing market was going to stretch that out. I had never planned to live full time in Florida, all my friends and social relationships were in Delaware. There were plenty of outdoor activities to keep me busy and the condo was in a gated community with golf courses, pools and gyms. I suck at golf but spent some free time in gym.
There was also a fitness center in the gym which held various classes, aerobics, kick boxing, step and yoga for a few. Another benefit of the fitness center was it gave me a chance to socialize mostly with women but a few men also. I was the only man in some of the classes. I wasn't complaining, nor was I looking for a relationship. My wounds were still heeling from my divorce. But I always began every class chatting with a woman or two and the classes ended the same way.
A woman approached me on my way out of class one day. I recognized her from some of my classes but couldn't remember her name. Women had the advantage, since I was usually one of the only men in the class, anytime the instructor mentioned my name, they knew who she was referring to.
The woman who I would learn was named Joyce, asked if I would join her for coffee. I said yes and we were soon seated in an outdoor café across from the center discussing where we were from and the other usually chit chat.
Then she says, "I'm glad you agreed to join me for coffee, it's so hard to get a chance to talk to the fitness center lothario with his fan club around him."
"I'm not sure if I should be insulted or not because I'm not sure what lothario means but my memory suggests it's not a compliment and I don't think I have a fan club."
"Maybe lothario was not appropriate, but you have to see how those women look
at you Jack."
I was exasperated as I looked up lothario. She was calling me a seducer of women, rakish and unscrupulous.
"Joyce, there was an article in the New York times a couple of months ago that discussed the importance of seniors maintaining a strong social network to keep senility and dementia away. All my social contacts are in Delaware. I would sign up for all the classes anyway but the social activity has been a big benefit. I'm 68 years old, not fully over my divorce nor looking for anything beyond friendly chats. I haven't seduced anyone except my ex-wife in 30 years."
I was getting ready to get up when she said bullshit. Sitting back down, I wanted to end whatever speculation she was alluding to.
"You can't be 68, you must be in your fifties," Joyce said.
I showed her my license.
"Well, just because you're 68 doesn't mean you're not a player."
"Joyce, I'm just a lonely person trying to make a few friends. I'm leaving now."
"Jack, please don't go and let me apologize."
Against my better judgement, I sat back down.
"I am sorry Jack, I watched those women flirting with you and that smile you grace them with and I misread you. Please forgive me. Can we start over?"
After sighing, I reached my hand across the table and said, "Hi Joyce, I'm Jack," and gave her a smile.
It became a routine that we would usually have coffee after a class and then some other women started joining us. It wasn't always the same people, pickleball was a big draw which I avoided and I also avoided golf. Biking had become my favorite activity and some women including Joyce started inviting themselves on my bike rides. Joyce started a group text to let everyone know where and when we were riding and also letting people know if we were canceling because of the weather.
One Wednesday, we were getting ready to bike a twenty mile rail trail and there were fifteen people in our group, mostly women but two husbands had also joined us. My social network was growing, there were over twenty people on Joyce's group text and many of us were friends on Facebook.
Joyce started organizing after ride dinners, nothing fancy but I enjoyed them. Food seemed to taste better when there was someone sitting across the table.
All of this occurred during the winter, as April came, many of the residents started heading to their homes in the frigid north. By May, it was usually only Joyce and I on our bike rides and many of the classes we enjoyed were cancelled. We added other activities, bird watching, visits to nature centers, and kayaking.
It was a trip to the beach that things changed. After setting up our chairs, Joyce slipped off her shorts and her shirt. I had seen Joyce in yoga style clothing many time and the bikini was appropriate for a woman in her sixties who was very physical fit, and it took my breath away.
She noticed me staring, "Like what you see Mr. Lothario?"
"I'm sorry Joyce."
"Jack, you don't know how long I've been trying to get you to look at me that way.
Are you over your ex yet Jack?"
"I think so, I rarely think about her anymore and the few conversations we have had been less adversarial. What about you Joyce, are you over your ex yet?"
"He cheated on me three times, getting over him was the easy part. Learning how to trust men again has been the hard part. Can I trust you Jack, even when your fan club comes back in the fall?"
"I don't cheat and I don't think any of the women in my fan club as you call it are interested in me in that way."
"You could never be a player Jack because you're fucking blind. All of the single women in that club would jump your bones in a heartbeat and half the married women would too. That's why their husbands started joining our bike rides."
I sat there in my beach chair, staring at the ocean while I tried to decode this conversation. She said she had been trying to get me to look at her that way and she also said all the single women in my so called fan club want to jump my bones and Joyce was a single woman in that so called club. So did that mean Joyce wanted to jump my bones. I looked at Joyce and she was smiling at me, but it wasn't a deep smile. I couldn't remember the last time I thought about sex with a specific woman or being intimate in anyway.
"Watcha thinking Jack?"
I held her hand and I liked it.
I said, "Do you want to go look for shells?"
She started squeezing my hand, hard, to the point where I was beginning to feel pain.
"Jack, do you really think that was the answer I was looking for when I asked you what you were thinking?"
"I was thinking that you would like us to move our relationship beyond friends who like to bike ride together and I would like that, the way I liked holding your hand before it was put in a vice grip. You don't understand how far from player I am. The idea of being intimate with anyone generally scares me."
Joyce relaxed the grip on my hand and said, "What about a kiss Jack, would that scare you?"
I answered her question by leaning over and kissing her, just a gentle kiss on the lips.
"You had me worried there Jack, that I fucked this up between us. Thank you for the kiss but I'm going to want more than that before this day is done. Let's go for that walk."
Joyce's smile had deepened, we started walking while holding hands and then Joyce took my arm and put it around her waist. Since the fabric of the bikini was limited to her private areas, I was left with my hand on Joyce's bare skin.
"I like that Jack, your arm around me and your hand touching my skin. Something I never thought I would feel again, probably you too I'm guessing."
