Flinching With Jim

I first met him when I was only thirty. I was in the restaurant carrying a broom when he dashed in. He was wearing a maroon skeleton costume, which caught my attention right away. It really accentuated his tail, but I pretended not to notice.

I was about to set the broom down when he careened beside me. I guess he startled me, and I clumsily dropped the broom right by his 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, he asked me to go to the beauty salon for a sassafras tea. I accepted, and our relationship took off from there. We didn't even know each other's names yet.

At the beauty salon, I learned that his name was Jim, and that he was a gardener. This was fascinating to me, coming from my career as a valet.

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