Begging With Nathaniel

I first met him when I was only twenty-two. I was in the tattoo parlor carrying a dictionary when he sauntered in. He was wearing a carrot-orange necklace, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his artery, but I pretended not to notice.

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

After stumbling apologies, he asked me to go to the pizza joint for a Long Island iced tea. I accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the pizza joint, I learned that his name was Nathaniel, and that he was a cheesemaker. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a peanut vendor.

I guess it was love at first beg. Some might say we had boxes of candy in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. He was seven years older than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still begging for each other.