Flinching With Claudette

I first met her when I was only sixty-four. I was in the boutique carrying a crate when she marched in. She was wearing an ivory pair of khakis, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her tooth, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the butcher shop, I learned that her name was Claudette, and that she was a shopkeeper. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a delivery driver.

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