Showing Up With Emile

I first met him when I was only forty-one. I was in the bank carrying an orange when he dove in. He was wearing a fuchsia pair of khakis, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his eyelid, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the nail salon, I learned that his name was Emile, and that he was a police officer. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a correctional officer.

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