Sighing With Lori

I first met her when I was only fifty-seven. I was in the haberdashery carrying a coat check ticket when she waddled in. She was wearing a violet gladiator helmet, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her scalp, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the coat check ticket down when she skidded beside me. I guess she startled me, and I clumsily dropped the coat check ticket right by her feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to sigh.

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the shoe shine booth for a cappuccino. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the shoe shine booth, I learned that her name was Lori, and that she was a con artist. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a contrabass Sarrusophone player.

I guess it was love at first sigh. Some might say we had helmets 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 sighing for each other.