Nine Million Bicycles

As they passed one another, Copenhagen Man tipped his hat and said, "Ma'am," the huge bulge in his lip showing like a tumor with several grains stuck in his teeth as he smiled at her.

Paula glanced at him without smiling back, then said, "Hello," as quickly as she could and kept walking. She heard the unmistakable, sickening sound of spitting followed by a loud splat and almost felt ill as she imagined tobacco juice all over the sidewalk.

As she looked up, she saw another ball cap, but the man wearing it had gray hair. That didn't automatically rule him out, but when he turned around and she saw he was in his 70s, that did.

A third cap was on the head of a young girl who was leaving, and she didn't see another one anywhere near the foyer, inside or outside of the restaurant. She walked in, looked around, and didn't see anyone else in a ball cap anywhere in the restaurant other than two other teenagers who were seated at a table.

"Sorry. Could we get through please?" she heard a female voice ask as she realized she was impeding traffic and in and out of the restroom.

"Oh. I'm so sorry," she said as she stepped aside for the woman and her daughter.

As they walked into the ladies' restroom, a man came out of the men's room holding a little boy's hand.

"Do you see your friend, Daddy?" the boy asked.

Paula turned to look at him, and couldn't help but smile. He was maybe four and had the cutest little chubby cheeks. His father was maybe 30 or so, and a very nice looking man, but he wasn't wearing a ball cap.

"Not yet, buddy," she heard his dad say.

It took her a couple of seconds before her brain made the connection, but when it did, she turned to face the boy's father who was just then pulling on a ball cap, covering up a very full head of dark hair.

He was clearly now waiting and looking himself as Paula gently touched his arm.

"Excuse me. Are you...."

When he turned her way, she saw the KNOT logo on his hat and took in a sharp, quick breath.

"Paula?" the much-younger man asked, as a gorgeous smile broke out on his very handsome face.

"Yes. Lake?" she asked, her head slightly tilted as though looking at from a slightly different angle would answer her question.

"Yes!" he said, still smiling at her.

"I'm...I'm so glad to meet you," she said not sure whether or not to shake hands.

He was holding his son's hand and reached out his one free arm for a hug, and the two strangers very loosely embraced.

"Daddy? Is this your friend?" the sweet little boy asked.

"Oh, right. Yes, it is," he said. "Paula, this is my son, Connor. Connor this is Ms. Stevenson."

He knew her name from the contest, but she was still surprised to hear him say it.

She bent down and smiled and said, "Hello, Connor! It's so nice to meet you."

"You, too," the boy said as he stuck his hand out like a little man.

Paula shook it then asked how old he was.

"I'm four. And next year I'll be five," he informed her.

"Right! That's how it works, huh?" she said happily. "You are a very handsome young man."

"What do you say, buddy?" his father asked.

"Thank you!"

"You're very welcome," Paula told him as she stood up.

"I'm sorry for the way I reacted, Lake. You weren't exactly what I was expecting," she said still trying to accept how different he was from what she'd imagined.

Lake smiled then said, "But you just happen to be very much what I'd imagined."

"Ooh and...ouch! Again, I'm very sorry. If only my daughter was still around. I can promise you you wouldn't feel disappointed."

Now it was Lake's head that tilted slightly.

"No. You don't understand," he told her. "I'm not the least bit...disappointed. I was picturing a beautiful woman, I just wasn't picturing one as beautiful as you."

Paula stood there like a statue trying to decide whether or not he was flattering her or just being mean. He seemed too nice to be a vicious person, so she settled on the first option.

"Thank you for being so kind. I have no idea why you'd say that, but it was nice to hear nonetheless."

Lake cocked his head to the other side then told her, "I said it because it's true. You're a very attractive woman, Paula."

"Um...okay," she said, having no idea what else to say.

When she didn't respond, Lake asked if she'd like to find a table.

"Oh. Yes. Definitely," she told him, grateful to move on from the whole business of her looks. Were he her age, or even close, she'd have taken him at his word. But because he was so much younger and very good looking, it had to be flattery and nothing more.

"She's pretty, Daddy," Connor said loudly enough for Paula to hear.

"Yes she is, buddy," his dad agreed wholeheartedly.

"I see the Jeffries men are all big flatterers. Okay, I can live with that," Paula said, still assuming it was kindness more than sincerity.

Paula spotted an open table by a window and asked if that was okay.

"Sure. Anywhere is fine," Lake told her.

He helped her get seated, something else she didn't expect, then took off the ball cap, and helped his son into a booster seat.

"I don't have to sit in a highchair anymore 'cuz I'm big," Connor told her.

"I see that," Paula said with a smile.

"And when I'm five, I won't need a booster chair, either," the boy let her know.

"Oh. Okay. That'll be nice, huh?"

"Yes, because I'll be really big and then I can see over the table like my daddy."

"He's adorable!" Paula said, finally looking back at Lake who, with his hat off, was even more good looking.

"Thank you. Connor's my best buddy, right, buddy?" his dad asked.

"Uh-huh. 'Cuz my daddy's the best daddy in the whooole world!"

When Lake reached over to muss up his son's hair, she noticed a wedding ring. In an instant, she was furious.

"Is your wife working or maybe at home waiting for you?" she asked rather snidely making sure he knew she knew.

Lake's smile disappeared before he quietly said, "No. She um...she passed away a couple of years ago."

Stunned, Paula's anger instantly turned to guilt as she told him how genuinely sorry she was as her heart went out for both of them.

"Thank you. Very much. It's been a really hard thing to deal with, but we're taking it one day at a time and doing the best we can."

Lake saw the concern in her eyes and said, "Please don't feel bad for thinking I was still married. I'd be just as disgusted if you were married, so I really do understand."

"That's very kind of you, Lake. I really do feel terrible, and I honestly didn't know what else to say."

"I remember your daughter telling me, or maybe—yelling at me—that you were single, and I made sure to ask before asking you out. And well, since the subject came up, is it okay to even ask about that?" he inquired gently and tactfully.

"Yes. It's fine. After what you just told me, I don't feel so bad about what happened to me, and I'm happy to share my story," Paula told him.

Without going into the details she relayed the gist of why she was on the verge of divorce and the way her husband had let her know about the affair.

"I know our situations are different, but I feel...awful for you," Lake told her. "No one should ever have to deal with that kind of thing."

Paula managed a smile then said, "So it appears we're both single and each have one child."

"Yes. That does seem to be the case," Lake said returning her smile.

"Daddy? I'm hungry," Connor said.

He'd been quietly coloring the back of a child's menu almost from the moment they'd sat down.

"He's very patient," Paula said as she looked around for a server. It was busy but not that busy.

Lake caught someone's attention, and she said she'd be right there. When she came over she apologized.

"One of our servers called in sick just a few minutes ago so we're shorthanded. I'm very sorry for the wait."

"No, it's fine," Lake told her. "My...friend and I were just getting acquainted.

She asked what they'd like to drink then came back with two iced teas and a glass of skim milk which Connor chugged before they could take a second sip.

"Wow. That was fast!" his dad said.

Connor had a milk mustache that made Paula smile.

"He's not only patient, he's a cutie pie."

"He got that from his mother, but thank you," Lake told her as he dabbed off the milk.

"I obviously didn't know your wife, but I see a lot of you in him, and well...."

Saying any more would sound like flirting, and although she still didn't know his age, he was a whole lot younger than her, so flirting was out of the question.

Lake only smiled then asked about her daughter.

Paula beamed as she spoke of her recent graduation from college and her new job.

"Oh, and she also happens to be my best friend in the whole world."

"My daddy's my best friend!" Connor told her again, having no idea he'd already said that.

"Well, you're a very lucky young man," Paula told him.

"He's my best bud, too," Lake said. "I can only hope he'll grow up to become my best friend in the way your daughter is yours."

"It wasn't always easy during her teen years, but Eileen was definitely better than most. At least as far as I can judge from other friends who had daughters. Some of them told me things that kept me up at night worrying about Eileen, but she never strayed too far off course."

"You said she's working at Mountain Home, right?"

"Yes. Her first day is tomorrow. And you mentioned being in the Air Force. Were you ever stationed there?"

"No. I go there occasionally, but I spent my early years starting at Lackland in San Antonio, then Keesler Air Base in Mississippi, and Pope Field in North Carolina. After that I went to Royal Air Force Base Mildenhall in England. That's were I met my wife, by the way."

"Oh, my goodness. That is so interesting. I've been to Canada and Mexico but that's it. I would love to see Europe. Or anywhere to include the rest of America, for that matter," Paula told him. "So what did you do in England?"

"Well, I was a 'CCT' which stands for 'Combat Controller'. CCTs are part of US Special Force, but even so, I don't think many people have even heard of them, and that goes for most folks within the military. It's a pretty tough course that takes about two years to complete, and only about 10% of the people who start the training finish it."

Paula had almost no understanding of anything the military did, and what she thought she knew was largely a caricature of what they actually did. Her impression was that of men in warpaint 'harching' around with guns while sergeants hollered at them. So she had no clue that CCTs were the unsung Navy SEALs of the Air Force or that they were just as well trained but to do very different missions.

Lake could have spent hours talking about his life as a CCT from having to became ATC certified to qualifying with nearly every weapon US ground forces used to demolition and explosives to deploying to Afghanistan three times in the seven years after his certification. But that was a part of his past, and he preferred living in the moment and looking forward to the future, so he left it at that.

They were briefly interrupted when the same girl came back to take their orders, and that gave Lake a chance to change the subject.

"Anyway, I got out about three years ago, and through a friend of a friend, I was able to get a job with KNOT. With any luck, maybe I'll get a shot at being a DJ one of these days."

"You certainly have a voice for radio," Paula said with a smile.

She decided to go ahead and say something that might sound flirty even though it wasn't her intention.

"And you have a face...for TV."

Lake laughed politely then told her he wasn't sure about that.

"You also have a very nice singing voice. Do you by any chance sing professionally?"

Lake shook his head and said, "No. Nothing more than in the shower or maybe a little karaoke."

"Well, I was very impressed with the few bars of 'Hey Paula' you sang."

"Oh, right. I sang about how I 'want to marry you, and take you home', and that was before I knew how attractive you were," he said with a smile but not a laugh.

The way she was looking at him made Lake wonder if he'd somehow said something offensive.

"I uh, I was being honest but not in any...forward kind of way," he told her.

"Oh, no. That's not what I was thinking, at all," Paula replied. "I guess it just surprised me to hear you say that. Again."

"I do apologize. My friends keep encouraging me to 'think outside of the box' when it comes to meeting women, and I don't know how much farther outside it gets than calling someone you've never met who called the radio station."

Paula was going to tell him it was 'fine', but he was looking over at Connor who was busy coloring again as he continued.

"In fact, I've never asked anyone out since...since Donna passed away. So calling you out of the blue was WAY outside the box."

"I...I thought it was...sweet," Paula told him. "I haven't exactly found anyone myself, and the truth is I haven't even done any looking. Eileen tells me to 'spread my wings', so I suppose that's the equivalent of 'thinking outside the box', right?"

Lake laughed and told her he agreed.

"It's just so hard, you know? You think you're going to spend the rest of your life with this one special person, and then...they're gone."

He looked at Paula then asked a rhetorical question.

"How do you even go about looking after that?"

"I honestly don't know. I was so hurt and so angry, I couldn't even think about 'dating' or any such thing. And had it not been for Eileen, I might have never come out of it."

Lake was listening with such intensity it made Paula feel less uncomfortable about telling him how she turned to alcohol to deaden the pain.

"I'd probably had less than 49 drinks in the 49 years I'd been alive, but I more than made up for it by drinking myself to sleep every night for weeks."

"Wait. Does that mean...when you say '49' are you...is that referring to your age?" he asked with a very puzzled look.

"Unfortunately, yes. I'm facing the 'big five-oh' next Spring, and not exactly excited about it," she said with a smile.

"Wow. I know you have a daughter who just finished college, but I was sitting here wondering if maybe you got married at 17 or something."

Again, he was so serious it didn't sound like teasing.

"No. Not hardly," she said with a laugh. I was 26 when I got married and 27 when I had Eileen."

"That's the same age Donna was when I married her. And she was 27 when Connor was born."

He smiled a wistful smile then said, "The coincidences are piling up around here!"

Paula laughed just as their food arrived.

"Fren' fries!" Connor called out when he saw what his dad had ordered for him.

"He loves French fries. And ketchup," Lake said as he poured a large puddle of it on his son's plate.

The little boy gabbed one, dipped it in the thick, red liquid then happily chomped away.

"Are they good, buddy?" his dad asked.

Connor only nodded as he got ready to shove the rest of the fry in his mouth.

His dad reached over to slow the boy down and stopped in mid-motion. He visibly winced as he pulled back.

"Are you okay?" Paula asked.

"Yeah," Lake said, his face telling a different story. "It's just sciatica."

"Oh, that is so painful," Paula said. "I've only had one flare up, but it put me on my back for two days. I could roll over, and if I was very slow and careful, I could stand up. But laying down was the worst. I'd sit down very slowly then try and lay back."

"But the pain is so bad you end up just 'crashing' and falling backward so you can get over the pain all at once."

"Yes! Exactly. If you try and go slowly it just drags on and it hurts the entire time," she said. "Do you deal with that a lot?"

"It's fairly constant," Lake said as Paula watched him trying to straighten out his back.

He twisted and shifted until he said, "Okay. I think I found the right spot."

He smiled again and moved on without further comment about the pain.

"Is your food okay?" he asked before taking a first bite of his.

"Yes. It's delicious. Thank you very much."

"Oh, before I forget, I wanted to thank you for your first request," Lake told her.

"Nine Million Bicycles?"

"Yes. Wow. What a song! I normally only listen to country, but after listening to it—and that line about how 'it's a fact that's how I'll love you 'til I die—I couldn't get it out of my head. I had a time convincing the producer to play it, by the way, and we got a few negative calls for it, but we got a lot of positive calls, too. Anyway, it really hit me hard, and I've been singing it ever since."

Paula explained how her daughter suggested using music in her recovery.

"So when she gave me that song, I must have listened to it 25 or 30 times straight. I sat there and just cried."

Lake looked around a bit then quietly said, "Yeah. Me, too. I had that kind of love and lost it. It really is priceless."

"I haven't. I don't mean to imply I've never been loved. I have. I've just never experienced anything close to that. Ever."

She felt herself tearing up then said, "But I'd like to be. Loved like that," as she reached for a napkin.

"You all right?" Lake asked.

"I'm fine," Paula said, forcing a smile. "And before I forget, I loved the song you played for me. I've never been a country fan, but songs like that are making me reconsider."

"Music is so subjective, and we like what we like. But for me, country has always spoken to my heart. It's real people with real lives."

Lake laughed then said, "And real dogs and real trucks, and...."

He laughed again and told Paula, "Okay, that reminds me of a joke."

"Uh-oh. Go ahead," she said with a bit of a cringe.

"What do you get when you play country music backwards?"

"Um...I don't know. Tell me."

"You get your dog back, you get your truck back, you get your girl back...."

Paula laughed more because Lake was so cute in the way he told the joke rather than it being funny. It was more corny than funny, but it did make her laugh.

"Hey, I made you laugh," he pointed out.

"Yes you did. And I love to laugh, I just don't do a lot of it these days."

"Sounds like you're hanging out with the wrong people," Lake told her with a smile.

"Other than Eileen, I haven't exactly been hanging out with anyone," Paula said rather wistfully.

Lake did his best 'hillbilly' accent and said, "Well, looky thar! We dun got ourse'ves another co-inky-dink."

Paula held out as long as she could before his silliness got the best of her. A spurt escaped first followed by the laughter.

"What's so funny?" Connor asked, his last French fry gone.

"Your daddy is a silly man," Paula told him.

"Hey, you need to eat your chicken nuggets, dude."

"More ketchup, please!" Connor asked.

"I've never seen such a polite, well-mannered little boy," Paula said after realizing how little Connor had said. He was fully content to color or eat his food in silence.

"He's always been that way. I never have to tell him something twice, and unless he's sick, he's always happy and polite."

"He really is adorable," Paula said again.

"Would you like anything else?" Lake asked her even though she hadn't eaten much of what she ordered.

"Oh. No, thank you. I'm fine. This was very good, I just don't eat out very often. A big part of my recovery was healthy eating. And Yoga."

"I've never tried Yoga. Is it as...fun...as it looks?" he asked trying not to laugh.

"I understand the mild sarcasm, believe me. I had the same opinion when I first started going. But it's actually really enjoyable. You should give it a try."

"I'm not sure my back would thank me," Lake told her.

"Oh, right. The sciatica problem. Did you have some kind of...."

She stopped then said, "Sorry. That's none of my business."