Chapter One - Introduction :
I first met Louise one night, many years ago, when she and her husband, Ross, ventured into the coffeehouse establishment where my band and I were performing. They were immediately noticeable, as they were easily the oldest couple in the room and tended to stand out rather dramatically amongst the usual rabble of rowdy college students.
During one of our breaks, they managed to flag down one of the band members, who later introduced them to the rest of us. They both seemed very nice and were full of intelligent, insightful questions relating to the music business and the local music scene in general, so conversation was easy and never strained.
We warmed to them rather quickly, and before long they became regulars at the coffeehouse whenever we were performing there, even following us to other venues around the city.
We were invited to dinner and enjoyed the company and the cooking. As time went on, we became more and more frequently invited for dinner parties and social get-togethers, and our friendship grew.
When a day arrived when we found ourselves in need of a new house to rent, Louise took it upon herself to search the rental housing in her neighborhood and, as luck would have it, located the perfect house for us that was only two houses away from her own. As neighbors, we were constantly visiting back and forth and, as Louise was as much a coffee fanatic as I, I spent a great many of my mornings sharing coffee at her kitchen table and gossiping. The bond of friendship between all of us grew even more, and most especially between Louise and me, who shared many countless hours together, several days a week, sharing confidences and even intimate details about ourselves, and others, over our morning coffees.
One might easily surmise that, because of our close friendship, there might very well have been at least some underlying measure of physical attraction between Louise and me, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. From the very beginning, my relationship with Louise was completely platonic in every respect. She was, after all, a married woman whose husband I also considered a very good friend. Simply put, we enjoyed each other's company, and there was never a hint of flirtation, or innuendo, or any other behavior that might, in any way, be interpreted as anything more than platonic friendship.