Winking With Lois

I first met her when I was only twenty-three. I was in the beauty salon carrying a bird cage when she made a beeline in. She was wearing a polka dotted belt buckle, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated her skin, but I pretended not to notice.

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

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

At the movie theater, I learned that her name was Lois, and that she was an optician. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a bailiff.

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