The New Guy
For those of you who might be wondering… yes, I have a new guy.
I first met him the summer I was 14 and he was 20. He was a lifeguard at our local swimming pool and though I thought he was cute, it was my best friend who had the crush on him.
After all these years I remembered him though. After all, my best friend and I spent many hours prancing around in front of him that summer because it was the first year that we really filled out our bikinis. So needless to say, nearly nineteen years later he just so happened to remember me too. ![]()
Nowadays my sister works with him and a couple of months ago she started filling me in on what a rough year he had been having. In many ways his situation paralleled my own and though I wasn’t sure either one of us was really ready for any kind of romantic interlude, it seemed to me that we could both use a friend.
It started with dinner, a movie, and lots of conversation: Everything about how he remembered me in that itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka-dot bikini (yes, my first bikini really was yellow polka-dotted) to my travels overseas to his brief stint as an exterminator. I told him of my plans and that my stay in Small Town, Iowa was intended to be a brief one.
Nevertheless, the next week we went out to dinner again and that time we went bowling afterwards. Then later in the week I learned that he played Cribbage, one of my all-time favorite card games, and next thing I knew we were playing Cribbage nearly every evening and I was eating dinner with his family on Sunday.
I keep reminding him of my plans and we agreed that we would enjoy the time we have together one day at a time, but I know that each time he tells me about his dream of life with a white picket fence that he hopes that one day I will change my mind and offer to stay with him and live happily ever after.
And never has his wish been so apparent than the other night as a look of sadness and disappointment flashed across his face when I told him that in a couple of weeks I will be going on an interview 500 miles away and with any luck, I will be leaving by the beginning of March.


10 January 2007 at 14:58
Yeah for you! I’m not sure what your opinion is on “fate” and all, but it’s funny how things happen sometimes………….;)
11 January 2007 at 08:05
Enjoy your time with the new guy!
12 January 2007 at 10:58
I like your values and priorities! I think it’s important to be self-supporting before becoming monogamous. However it goes, hope this story has a happy ending.
Carol
Comstock Park, MI
15 January 2007 at 09:35
So glad you have someone to spend time with. E-mail details of this interview woman!
15 January 2007 at 15:10
How bittersweet. I’m so very happy for you that you’ve been able to connect with someone (you must have really made an impression with that bikini! ;o), and also, good for you for sticking to your dreams.
24 January 2007 at 17:24
500 miles is not that far. My sister lives in Washington, D.C. and my BIL live in St. Louis. He commutes every weekend, and they get on fine…. possibly better than if they lived in the same city.