Gordon’s Love Story

I spent an hour and a half after mass tonight chatting with an elderly gentleman named Gordon. I met him about three weeks ago and this was our second encounter. He had asked me last time if we could find the time to chat (his wife is working in NYC now and I think he’s a little lonely) so tonight we found a park bench on Pennsylvania Avenue and began chatting. After the conversation had covered the story of how I met my girlfriend, Gordon described to me the circumstances in which he met his wife.

He was living in New York City and wanted to take an art class (art was a minor hobby of his). He found a teacher in Greenwich Village whom agreed to accept him into the water coloring class that he was going to teach. On the first day of class, Gordon saw that the classroom was setup with 8-10 easels in a circle, all facing inward. Whatever the class was painting was in the middle of the circle of easels. Gordon said that as he was painting during the lesson, he at one point looked past the subject from around his watercolor and he noticed directly across from him the face of a beautiful woman peaking out from the side of her canvas and looking back at him. As the lesson progressed he continued to see the attractive face peaking around from her canvas, smiling back and even winking! (I suppose that means he was doing a fair share of peaking and smiling himself! - oh, Gordon, you flirt, you) After the lesson he knew he had to go over and talk to that gorgeous woman. He did, and from brief chatter on walk out he acertained that she was a very nice lady. Rather than split then, he asked her to coffee, and the rest is history (that history being that he married her).

Awwww..... <3 <3 <3 :-)

Later in the conversation he said to me, "T.J., I’m a really sometimes a hard-nosed SOB and indeed many people around the world fear me professionally...but I think I’m really a nice guy deep down. I’m going to give you some advice: stay romantic throughout your life. Keep that part of you going forever." He told me about the time he asked his wife to be back at a certain hour. While she was gone, he attempted to make for her a chocolate soufflé...usually impossible for beginners but by some stroke of luck it came out perfect just as she walked in. He had laid out candles everywhere and they ate the soufflé on a blanket with flowers on the floor that he had also laid out. Afterwards he said they walked out on to the deck and enjoyed the view while embracing each other. Finally, with a chuckle he told me how they then made their way back indoors to the couch, where as he put it they had "dessert". Although it creeped me out that this sixty-something year-old stranger used such a euphemism for sex with me, I must he with his experienced years have left me some sound advice. I shall be a romantic for as long as my heart beats. Cheers, Gordon.