Jessica
Quite a few years ago I signed up for an evening "creative writing" class down at the University of Maine and met this... let's say... unforgettable young single mom taking the same class. Her name is Jessica. By the way, Jessica, thank you for loaning me that pen the first night of class. I'd have been lost without it!
Yesterday I was searching through my room to see if I could find a missing battery charger for my new Lumix waterproof camera and in the back of the top drawer of my dresser I came across a letter that Jessica had written me several months after the class had finished. Jessica was the sort of person, for me anyway, that you just don't want to lose touch with. I wanted to be friends with her. So I wrote her a romantic letter because let's face it, I found her very attractive. She was intelligent to the extreme but also very attractive... and tall... and blonde even!
Anyway she wrote me back that she wasn't looking for a guy but she added a paragraph at the end that my writing her was romantic and she encouraged me to keep trying.
I actually don't remember if I replied to her letter or not but I did take it as a rejection. It wouldn't have been entirely inappropriate for her and myself to become friends since I was separated from my wife at the time, as I recall, but there was an enormous age difference between us so in that sense it was inappropriate. But I remember wondering at the time and I have wondered ever since if she meant I should not give up hope of finding a romantic relationship with someone else or if she meant I should not give up hope of having a romantic relationship with her! What a mystery!
However, by that time in my life I had come to realize that there is a very thin line, invisibly thin in fact, between a guy showing romantic interest in someone and him stalking her. For her sake and for my own I didn't cross that line after her letter with one tiny little exception. I hope she was OK with that exception.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention it.
Jessica, if you're still out there and if you ever read this, rest assured in my mind you were not just friendly and helpful and smart, you were beautiful. I enjoyed knowing you.
Yesterday I was searching through my room to see if I could find a missing battery charger for my new Lumix waterproof camera and in the back of the top drawer of my dresser I came across a letter that Jessica had written me several months after the class had finished. Jessica was the sort of person, for me anyway, that you just don't want to lose touch with. I wanted to be friends with her. So I wrote her a romantic letter because let's face it, I found her very attractive. She was intelligent to the extreme but also very attractive... and tall... and blonde even!
Anyway she wrote me back that she wasn't looking for a guy but she added a paragraph at the end that my writing her was romantic and she encouraged me to keep trying.
I actually don't remember if I replied to her letter or not but I did take it as a rejection. It wouldn't have been entirely inappropriate for her and myself to become friends since I was separated from my wife at the time, as I recall, but there was an enormous age difference between us so in that sense it was inappropriate. But I remember wondering at the time and I have wondered ever since if she meant I should not give up hope of finding a romantic relationship with someone else or if she meant I should not give up hope of having a romantic relationship with her! What a mystery!
However, by that time in my life I had come to realize that there is a very thin line, invisibly thin in fact, between a guy showing romantic interest in someone and him stalking her. For her sake and for my own I didn't cross that line after her letter with one tiny little exception. I hope she was OK with that exception.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention it.
Jessica, if you're still out there and if you ever read this, rest assured in my mind you were not just friendly and helpful and smart, you were beautiful. I enjoyed knowing you.
posted by Bill | 11:49 AM
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