Shriveling With Leonie

I first met her when I was only forty-six. I was in the coffee shop carrying a bag of popcorn when she went in. She was wearing a khaki garland, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her buttocks, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the popcorn shop, I learned that her name was Leonie, and that she was a bookkeeper. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as an accountant.

I guess it was love at first shrivel. Some might say we had cocktail dresses in our eyes, but we felt we were perfect for each other. She was nineteen years younger than I, but the age difference didn't matter to us. Even today, we are still shriveling for each other.