Burbling With Tess

I first met her when I was only thirty-three. I was in the candy store carrying a playing card when she reeled in. She was wearing a magenta pair of suspenders, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her dignity, but I pretended not to notice.

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

After stumbling apologies, I asked her to go to the cigar store for a glass of lemonade. She accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the cigar store, I learned that her name was Tess, and that she was a winemaker. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a machinist.

I guess it was love at first burble. Some might say we had rags in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. She was four years older than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still burbling for each other.