Vignette 1

M: Do you like a lot of mayo in your tuna fish or a little?

Me: Little, please.

M: You don’t prefer Miracle Whip, do you?

Me: Definitely not.

M: Would you like the bread toasted?

Me: Please. I love toast.

M: How would you like your sandwich cut?

Me: (Laughing in disbelief) What?

M: Would you like it cut straight across or on a diagonal?

It was one of my first visits to her home on the island. No one had ever been that attentive to me.

Vignette 2

Me: (After jack-knifing the lawn tractor and wagon, again. Waving my arm wildly.) Valet! Valet! Would you turn me around, please?

M: (Laughing) Why, of course.

M could drive anything and park a full size pickup in a match box.

Vignette 3

Me: Eggs, toast, cheese, potatoes, and bacon? What will I be doing to burn off this farmer’s breakfast?

M: I thought we’d move some rocks from one side of the yard to the other. Or, dig out bamboo. Or, build a deck (x2). Or, put a gate in the fence. Or build a retaining wall in the rain. Or…

We’d start early on hot California summer Saturdays. I didn’t bother to wear underwear because we’d work 2 hours and then skinny dip, work, dip, work, dip.

Vignette 4

Speaking of the pool…

Me: What color noodle would you like?

M: Green

Me: Do you want a beer?

M: You’re funny (as I put two uncapped bottles of Modelo Dark in the sliver of shade at the end of the pool.)

These were our May-September after work “kick and bitch” sessions. A perfect way to separate the work day from evenings together.

Vignette 5

M: Guess I passed that with flying colors, didn’t I?

That was M’s response to my indoor date test, a trip together to IKEA. We’d dated a while by the time we went shopping, so I’d confessed that I had both an indoor ad outdoor date test. The indoor test was a trip together to IKEA. The test wasn’t about style and taste. It was about how the woman reacted to a little chaos and lots of input. M laughed throughout.