Old Flames

I, first, stumbled over my words. Clearing my throat, I said, "You must be her daughter, Sally?"

Now Sally had the deer-in-the-headlights look.

"I'm Dave, I went to high school with your mom and I have loved her for forty-five years.

"I raced her here, so I can ask her to marry me! And her flight will be landing soon, so please let me take this leap of faith, so she can tell me yes or no."

Sally inquired, "Wait, your name is David Reid? She has mentioned you a few times, in fact, the last time was when she called from the plane about twenty minutes ago, she was kind of sad."

"Well, I hope she will at least smile when she sees me."

Sally said, "I want to see this!"

I checked the arrival monitor again; her plane was on final approach. Sally and I chatted about things I knew about her mother, and I told her things about myself. Sally was smiling like the Cheshire cat.

I was getting nervous, was I making a fool out of myself? I'd find out in a few minutes.

The arrival monitor showed the plane was at the gate.

Sally said, "It will take mom about fifteen minutes to get to this point."

I saw the lady cop I had talked to earlier, she wanted to see the festivities.

A crowd of travelers were coming along the concourse.

I asked Sally if she would meet her mom and let me walk up behind her with my sign.

She agreed. Sally said, "There she is."

I moved out of Genny's line of sight.

Sally opened her arms to Genny to hug her. When they were hugging, I walked up behind Genny, and tapped her on the shoulder.

Genny turned around, and her eyes showed her surprise. When she saw the sign, she wrapped me up in a hug!

I said to her, "Do you think I could ask you to marry me now?"

Genny could not speak.

My smile was starting to fade.

Then she hugged me tighter. She said, "I met your family, now you get to meet mine; then, I'll let you ask me."

Small world.

The funniest, small-world thing had just come up-- Sally's husband's company's headquarters was moving to Phoenix, and Sally and her husband, Bill, were debating whether they would move to Phoenix, or if he would hope to find a new job so that Sally and the kids could stay near Genny. Bill was an executive, so the company really wanted to keep him.

We had dinner with Genny's daughter's family, grandkids and all. We were still all around the table when Genny winked at me. I stood up and tapped my glass. Everyone looked at me, and I got down on one knee and asked Genny to marry me. Genny threw her arms around me saying, "Yes, yes, yes."

Prepare for take off

Genny gave her apartment a notice. She said she was going to Phoenix with her daughter and son-in-law because of the 'transfer', and since she was the babysitter, she had to go. They let her out of her lease.

I called my son's mom, my ex, Anna. We still owned our old house together. I asked her how much she wanted for her half? She was tired of renting it out and having the headache of being a landlord, (I was the one who had to do the maintenance, so it was really my headache), it was vacant now. She gave me a reasonable price, so I bought her out (I now had the money for a down payment that I did not have when we divorced). I showed Sally and Bill pictures of the house, and from just the pictures, they said they would at least rent it. They later bought it.

Genny was in shock; a week ago, she thought she would never see me again, and now she and her family were moving to Phoenix, Arizona.

We were able to tie up things in Dallas. Bill's company was moving and paying for the family to go to Phoenix.

I told her since we had time, we could load up a U-haul and drive to Phoenix with her stuff. I told Genny she could remove almost anything from my condo to make room for her stuff, except my bed (unless she had a king-size bed), my desk, and filing cabinet. She said my stuff was not too bad, she'd live with it. Yeah, sure.

The week we spent in Dallas was busy, but we still had time for some romance.

Off we go

At the end of the week, Genny closed up her apartment. We got in the U-Haul, loaded up her car on the car hauler, and started out for Phoenix.

In about six hours, we were in Amarillo, Texas-- 338 miles.

After eating fast food on the road for breakfast and lunch, we picked Texas Roadhouse to eat dinner at. We returned to the hotel, turned in, and held each other all night. We got up and had a Grand Slams without pancakes at Denny's.

We drove four hours to Albuquerque, New Mexico-- 290 miles; where we did a little shopping. We took a dip in the hotel pool and had dinner at Applebee's. The hotel was by the airport, so we could watch the planes landing and taking off, until a thunderstorm hit, and we watched the lightning and fell asleep in each other's arms, listening to the thunder.

Arizona

We drove to Woods Canyon Lake, in the Rim Country of Arizona-- 300 miles, and stayed the night at my favorite campground. Genny was surprised at the Ponderosa pines we have in Arizona. We had stopped at an Albuquerque Home Depot and Dick's Sporting Goods and I bought two rolls of fibreglass-screen fabric and duct tape. I bought an air mattress and sleeping bags because we had space in the truck's box. I had Genny staring, with her mouth open, watching me create a window at the back of the U-haul U-Haul. We hunkered down in the back of the truck and made 'camping love' on our first night back in Arizona. Again, we surprised ourselves on how we could enjoy making love in various ways.

We got up in the morning and drove into Payson, Arizona, and ate breakfast at the 'Beeline Restaurant.' I told Genny how I'd love to live in Payson. We drove the last 88 miles to Phoenix Arizona and my condo.

Genny started setting up house as soon as we got there. My son dropped off DeeOhGee, and you would have thought I had been gone for years, puppy kisses galore and when she saw Genny, it was puppy kisses all over again.

Sally and Bill about to arrive

We heard from Sally and Bill and they were due in two weeks. So Genny, myself, Samantha, Jon and my ex, Anna, all descended on the house, cleaned it up, and got it ready for a move in. Anna chatted with Genny for quite a while. I cannot say it didn't make me nervous.

Anna and Me what happened

Anna told me later, "You'd better keep her, she seems she could be your soulmate." It did confuse me because she had called me her soulmate at one time.

Anna and I both had rebound marriages after we divorced. Anna met and never liked any girlfriend I had after the divorce, and could not even say wife number two's name without almost puking. She thought that wife number two had broken up our marriage, but I hadn't even met her 'til after we divorced. Anna's second husband did help the break up, when she met him.

Our marriage broke up because we forgot who our best friend was-- each other.

We had found this out, when both of us went through second divorces and she started counseling. Anna had asked me to go with her. We were both shocked, when the counselor helped us realize not being best friends was the main reason for our break up. We became almost-best friends again, which helped us co-parent our son.

Becoming a family

We began having Sunday dinners with our kids and grandkids, about every other Sunday. Anna would have dinner at my son's house when Genny and I had Sunday dinner with Genny's family, sometimes when Anna would join us on our Sundays, the grandkids loved it-- three grandparents at one time!

When Genny's grandkids started calling me 'grandpa', and my grandkids started calling Genny, 'Nana', I asked her, "You want to make it official?"

Genny said, "I think we'd better."

Samantha and Sally got to know each other very well, and when we told them we were going to get married they went into wedding status.

Samantha told Anna about it. Anna said she'd love to help out with the wedding. Help she did, Genny asked her to be her Matron of Honor! This brought me back memories of sophomore year when Genny, my freshman-year girlfriend, and Barbara, my then-current girlfriend, were both in orchestra with me! I asked Jon to be my Best Man.

We had co-ring bearers and co-flower girls-- we had to get all the grandchildren involved. Sally was Genny's attendant, and Samantha made sure Jon and I looked good for the pictures that SHE was taking. Genny and I decided that a quick trip to Sedona would be a good honeymoon.

Genny and my grandkids unofficially called each other cousins.

I sold my condo and we bought a small home in Payson. We saved a bunch of money by downsizing from the condo. We settled down to living our golden years together, spoiling our grandchildren. A motorhome became our 'vacation home', with which we took many summer trips with the grandkids. During the school year, Genny and I would drive to some romantic beach or forest, and just enjoy each other.

One more thing, Anna married a nice guy, Ray. Genny was her Matron of Honor and Ray asked me to be his Best Man. Imagine that!

After a couple of years, Anna and Ray retired and moved to Payson also; just a few blocks from us.

We bump into them all the time at Bashas', Safeway, Fargo's Steakhouse, Dairy Queen and, sometimes, on purpose. Now, when my grandkids come to visit, Anna and I share our time with them.

When summer comes, we are busy with OUR grandkids (Genny's grandkids and my grandkids).

The end.

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