The Christmas concert was just as beautiful as the last time I went. It felt weird going to the same sort of concert years apart with two different dates. The first time, my wife bought the tickets for us. This time, my neighbor bought the tickets and surprised me. It was a delightful surprise. She seemed to have thought of everything. She not only bought the tickets, which were not that expensive but are hard to get. She also engineered the whole delivery of the ticket as well as planning for me to meet her at a special tree where I recommitted to Missy years prior. This woman surprises me at every turn sometimes.
During the concert, we held hands. We didn't engage in any PDA until when the lights went low right before it ended. There we shared a passionate kiss that took my breath away. I looked in her beautiful eyes afterwards for a bit as the hall emptied. It was when the room was partially emptied when she asked me about the organ.
"That pipe organ was installed when they built this building. What did you think of that one song where you could hear it?"
"It was beautiful," she responded. "It was kind of haunting, but really beautiful."
I took her hand as we negotiated walking through the seats and headed towards the back door. As I neared the entrance to the building, a person in black approached. He wore a gold tie and a gold nameplate. I glanced and saw it was the Dean of Music. He extended his hand towards me.
"Thank you for coming. Do you have any students here?"
I looked at him and attempted a smile.
"No, Sir. My wife and I never had children. We just saw that there was a concert and got lucky to get tickets."
He looked at my neighbor.
"I am happy you and your wife supported us. Thank you for coming."
He reached out and shook my neighbor's hand as well. We were then able to walk outside to the cold air. As I walked her to her car, I thought about the exchange and laughed a little. My neighbor looked perplexed.
"What's so funny, Romeo?"
I looked at her before taking her to the bench under the tree again and helping her sit down.
"I think he thought I referred to you when mentioning my wife and I didn't have children. I thought about all the times you would make sure I wanted to be with you because you were older than me. In his eyes, you were my wife. There was no judgement about age at all. I love the fact that what I said was backed up by a total stranger."
