Sunbreaks

There were a few moments of silence after the waiter retreated and then Erika touched my right hand which was lying on the table. “Is that your wedding ring?” Surprised by the question I said, “Yeah it is. I contemplated not wearing it any longer, but I didn’t want to do that. I decided to move it to the other hand. I guess that is kind of dumb, it really doesn’t make any difference which hand it is on. Nobody really noticed that I don’t have a ring on my left hand anymore.” “I am so touched that you did that,” Erika said, “it touches me deeply that you are that loyal and loving. Someone did notice.” “Thanks. I guess it wasn’t my choice to not have her any longer.” Erika lightly touched her eyes with her fingers and said “you are going to make me cry.” “I am sorry…” I started to say. She cut me off and said, “Stop being sorry, just talk with me about anything you want. Geez, how did I find the sweetest man in the world? You know I continued wearing my wedding ring for a while after my divorce. That is kind of weird, but I wanted to be just left alone. I didn’t want anyone to know I was single again. I wasn’t ready for that. I even had one guy in my MBA class say,’ I can see you are married but are you happy?’ Can you imagine that? That is the kind of stuff I didn’t want to deal with.” “First of all, you should know that you understandably caused a bigger stir by becoming single again than I did. I can understand how a guy would notice something like that. Rings are kind of losing their significance now in many ways,” I theorized. “I don’t know if you don’t have a ring on because you are single, or you are living with your boyfriend or you are gay or whatever. All I know is that when I removed the wedding ring from my left hand it was met with a huge collective yawn by the female population of the planet.” “I doubt that,” Erika said. “There would be lots of women who would love to have you.” “If you could supply names and phone numbers it would be helpful,” I said. “How about 503-555-2784?” “What?” I said. “That is the cell phone of a woman named Erika Stevens.” “Whoa, that is the greatest pick up line of all time,” I said. Erika blushed and said, “That wasn’t intended to be a pick-up line…” “No don’t spoil it. I am savoring the moment when a hot young woman used a pick-up line on me. What did you mean?” “What I said. You said give me the name and phone number of a woman who would be interested in me and I gave you one.” I was still trying to regain my footing when she added,” Tom, what if you and I become very good friends? What if you and I startede having nothing but fun together? What if you and I were companions to one another to go out and start enjoying the things we both love? We are both tired of being lonely. We could have fun and not have to worry about all of the dating games. Is that something you would be interested in doing with me?” “You are proposing a platonic relationship kind of, where we will be just good friends and go do things together, but as friends, right?” “Yeah, if you don’t want to, I would understand… ” Erika said. “Of course, I would like to be with you Erika. It makes me very happy to be with you and I look forward to seeing you each day,” I said. “It would be wonderful to have you as my friend and companion.”