Chapter 1
My birthday fell just before the cut off line for school, so I actually started kindergarten at age 4. Throughout my life I was always the youngest in my class by 6 months to a year. As a result I was still 17 when I graduated from high school, so I did not head off to college right away.
My life up to this point had always been one of longing, constantly trying to fit in, but more time than not I was on the outside looking in. Girls were of a great interest to me, but I was not to them. I had several girlfriends, but none seemed to last beyond a few weeks. My younger sister was incredibly popular and had many friends, which actually worked to my disadvantage; shutting me out of any social situation she did not want her brother involved in, which was most.
I went to a community college right out of high school, still living at home, and spent most of my time away from school working at a low paying job that I hated. Since my social life was nil, and community college was more like high school that anything else, I witnessed no change in my life.
The following year I was accepted at a small college in Central New Jersey, and could not wait to attend. I was very hopeful that I would finally find a life. The one benefit of living at home and working during my first year of college was that I had saved up enough money that I would not have to work during the school year. I arrived ready for all challenges awaiting me, as I was a good student, but most of all I wanted to make friends and find a much need social life.
Right away I realized that it was not meant to be as I discovered that most of the other students who were attending this school were from Northern New Jersey, New York or Connecticut. I was put in with a group who were all to busy getting drunk and partying with their friends. I was not accepted as I was not from their background, geographically or economically. Most of the other students attending this school had wealthier parents, and were using this school as a stop over to try and get their grades up so that they could transfer to schools like NYU and UCONN, whereas I was very happy to have just been accepted.
I was not even lucky enough to have a real roommate. The individual that the school had originally paired me with chose to not attend at the last minute; instead they stuck me with a junior who was originally supposed to get an apartment off campus with one of his fraternity brothers. He spent most of his time and slept most nights at the fraternity house, and did nothing more than use his side of the room as a storage area, if I seen him once a week for five minutes, that was a lot.
While growing up, despite being close to Center City Philadelphia, I had never really been exposed to the arts. So after several weekends filled with studying, watching football, and trying to get into a few parties, I decided that it was time to get out and see what else life had to offer. I am still not sure if it was boredom or a need to experience new things, but I started taking a bus up to New York City on the weekends. Being that I was alone, and a little fish out of water, I started going to museums and art galleries, where I could spend the day and yet not look completely out of place all alone.
My life would change a few weeks after I started making my trips into the city. I was at a small art gallery one Saturday afternoon, when I meant Jean, French for John. Jean was an older man who I would soon find out was in his early sixties. Jean was a businessman who was in the metropolitan area for a few months on business. We struck up a conversation while both observing the same painting, but it quickly became apparent that I had very little knowledge of painter or of art in general. Jean did not seem to mind, and we spent the next few hours walking around the gallery as he gave me a crash course in art history.
I had to go, in order to leave the city before dark as I was still a little scared moving about all alone in the city. Just as I was leaving, Jean mentioned another gallery to me that I should see, so we agreed that I would meet him there the following Saturday. At this point in my life I had never experienced any feeling towards another man, and after my first meeting with Jean I thought of him as a nice person who I could not believe would have the time for me.
Coming from my background, I was behind most of my classmates in that I had not been exposed to the arts, to how the business world really works (although I was a business major), or to older people actually having time to explain things to me. Though I was just about to turn 19, and trying to act like an adult, it was quite apparent that I was still taking in life as a wide eyed kid. The following Saturday Jean and I spent the day at the gallery talking more about life than anything else; I was a sponge taking everything in. Before I knew it, the gallery was closing, but Jean invited me to go out to dinner with him. I embarrassingly explained that I did not want to walk around the city after dark, but assured me that he would see to it that I made it back to my bus okay.
We went to a little cafΓ© and for the first time he started to really ask me about myself, my interests and what I was look for in the future. When I explained my major and my lack of exposure to the real business world, he started to tell me everything that I needed to concentrate on in school, and what I should expect once I got out into the real working world. Before I knew it, dinner was over, and he called a cab to take us back to where I could catch my bus. As we said goodbye, he gave me his phone number and told me to call him when ever I wanted to talk, in turn I quickly told him mine as well.
The very next day I was surprised to receive a call from Jean, he said that he had just called me to check up and to see when I would be going into the city next. Up to now, it had never dawned on me that Jean had taken a real interest in me, other than that of a mentor. During our conversation Jean started to ask me about my dating history, or if I had any real prospects. I told him no, to be honest, and then he next surprised me by asking if I had ever considered dating someone older. I was confused, if girls my own age were not interested in me, then why would an older woman? Still I said yes, if the opportunity presented itself, I would consider. Just before he hung up, he asked me if I wanted to come to the city and stay the weekend at his place. I said yes, if he would not mind, what should I bring? We told me that I would not have to bring anything special, just myself and a couple change of clothes.
The thought of spending the weekend away from the campus was exciting to me, yet then as is always the case, I became nervous and called Jean back the very next day. He assured me that I should not worry about my clothes that we would not go to any event that I had to get really dress up for (my wardrobe my limited, and not filled with expensive clothes), and also not to worry about money that he would cover everything. He asked me when I could come, and I said that I only have one class on Friday and would take the bus up afterwards. When he told me that he could take Friday off, I quickly blurted out (too quickly I soon realized) that I could actually skip my Friday class and take the bus up on Thursday. He ended the conversation by saying, "it's a date", and told me that he would be waiting for me when I arrived.