Flinching With Elmer

I first met him when I was only thirty-one. I was in the used car lot carrying a muffin when he zoomed in. He was wearing a white Speedo, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his palm, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the muffin down when he crept beside me. I guess he startled me, and I clumsily dropped the muffin right by his feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to flinch.

After stumbling apologies, he asked me to go to the malt shop for a kamikaze. I accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the malt shop, I learned that his name was Elmer, and that he was a colonel. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a fitness trainer.

I guess it was love at first flinch. Some might say we had corncobs in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. He was thirteen years younger than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still flinching for each other.