Flinching With Cherise

I first met her when I was only sixty. I was in the bookstore carrying a corsage when she trotted in. She was wearing a metallic red hood, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her nose, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the corsage down when she leapt beside me. I guess she startled me, and I clumsily dropped the corsage right by her 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, I asked her to go to the ice cream parlor for a margarita. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the ice cream parlor, I learned that her name was Cherise, and that she was a marketing manager. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a huckster.

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