Crouching With Karen

I first met her when I was only fifty-nine. I was in the perfumery carrying a paperweight when she jumped in. She was wearing an orange pair of cycling shorts, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her thigh, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the pizza parlor, I learned that her name was Karen, and that she was a beekeeper. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a masseuse.

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