Calming Down With Leila

I first met her when I was only fifty. I was in the McDonalds carrying a diagram when she slid in. She was wearing a khaki tunic, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her ego, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the restaurant, I learned that her name was Leila, and that she was a traveling salesman. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a professor.

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