It started as just another cool damp night. It was many years ago, and we were in a sleepy bedroom community located on the (very quiet--shhh!) Monterey Peninsula. We could hear the waves, those regular, gentle waves, just outside our window, as only a curvy, narrow asphalt road separated us from the beach. There wasn't much traffic. Most of the traffic on the road was tourists driving very slowly as they worked for a good glimpse of the sand, water, and rocks.
I was living with my girlfriend, and we were at home alone. On this particular occasion we were in a dark bedroom, the lights having been turned out, but the blinds still open so that some light from the road in front came in.
I was only 22. I was a young 22 in some ways as I had spent almost all of my adult life in the military--I had been stationed in the area (there were many people stationed in this area) and I was still naΓ―ve about women, somehow. To be sure, I had spent a lot of lonely nights alone in the military. On the other hand, she was much older, at least in some ways. We met on Sept. 3rd of the previous year, and soon after we met, she told me she was 40 (She was over 40, but she looked a lot younger than 40). I almost didn't believe she was 40. But the plentiful fog and easy sun of the Monterey Bay helps people age slowly and gracefully (and swimming every day in a pool doesn't hurt, either).
Besides the age gap, there were other differences. She had a bachelor's degree; I had just started college. She liked to take in a play in Carmel-by-the-Sea and Monterey and she liked to go to SF for the opera. I, however, had no interest in any such things. I didn't play golf or anything like that.
But that's where the differences stopped. We lived together and we were in love. Our sex lives, we had in common, and were very good. We were in the same place now. We were both the same age mentally in that we were both able to be happy. We talked about everything. I could be honest with her and she could be with me.