I first met him when I was only twenty-one. I was in the police station carrying a dead rat when he galloped in. He was wearing a navy blue moustache, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his finger, but I pretended not to notice.
I was about to set the dead rat down when he inched beside me. I guess he startled me, and I clumsily dropped the dead rat right by his feet. We both bent over to pick it up. It was one of those awkward moments, and we both began to stand by.
After stumbling apologies, he asked me to go to the shoe shine booth for a glass of water. I 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 his name was Derek, and that he was a social media influencer. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a government agent.
I guess it was love at first stand by. Some might say we had cigarettes in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. He was thirteen years older than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still standing by for each other.