Puffing With Giovanni

I first met him when I was only thirty-nine. I was in the deli carrying a primrose when he waded in. He was wearing a carrot-orange set of dentures, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his funny bone, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the bike shop, I learned that his name was Giovanni, and that he was a bell player. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as an orchestra conductor.

I guess it was love at first puff. Some might say we had vacuum cleaners in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. He was nine years older than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still puffing for each other.