True Love

Fate. I was supposed to be traveling to North Carolina for a tattoo convention but the booth fell through last minute. The next stop on the tour was Orlando, Florida - I was eager to travel so I signed up. I sent a message to Evan, who had recently moved to Florida- and said I’d be in town and I’d love to see him. He drove a couple hours from Cape Coral to Orlando and picked me up from the convention. He stopped traffic on I-drive grabbed my suitcase and yelled “GET IN! GET IN!” The first night we played it cool and got reacquainted. It had been 16 years since we’d seen each other last. We had dinner and walked and talked for miles. We rode scooter and danced. I knew then I was in love I said it out-loud. He came to the show and afterwards we broke away from the group and ended up talking until early in the morning. We played songs for each other and eventually, when I was very, very sleepy and could no longer keep myself from admitting what I knew was true- I asked him if I could lay in his lap. He obliged. I held his hand. He kissed me. True romance. We were absolutely in love. He had to leave and I couldn’t bear it- he waited til the last possible moment before driving away.

We met with Malikai and Athena to attend a 4 piece string quartet performance of Vivaldi’s 4 seasons at the Roxy Theatre. The theatre was dark, the musicians lit by candlelight. The music was powerful, all of us sat captivated with tears in our eyes. With each season we leaned in closer. Evan kept clutching his pocket and rubbing my ring finger. Fall came, he whispered in my ear- professing his love and asked me to be his wife. I whispered back- yes- and he placed my ring on my finger. We kissed and cried and held one another quietly all through winter. We stood in applause as the lights came on and I showed Malikai and Athena- who were none the wiser although they were sitting right next to us.