I first met her when I was only thirty-eight. I was in the newsstand carrying a carbine when she loped in. She was wearing a turquoise romper, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her thorax, but I pretended not to notice.
I was about to set the carbine down when she flew beside me. I guess she startled me, and I clumsily dropped the carbine right by her feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to chew.
After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the beauty salon for a glass of tomato juice. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.
At the beauty salon, I learned that her name was Natalie, and that she was a guitar player. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a woodcarver.
I guess it was love at first chew. Some might say we had Big Gulps in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. She was nine years younger than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still chewing for each other.