Exercising With Ricky

I first met him when I was only thirty-five. I was in the bowling alley carrying a can of shaving cream when he danced in. He was wearing a chocolate brown pair of galoshes, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his palm, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the bookstore, I learned that his name was Ricky, and that he was a bank teller. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as an upholsterer.

I guess it was love at first exercise. Some might say we had crates in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. He was fifteen years younger than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still exercising for each other.