First year university. Journalism school. Made friends with a sexy blonde in my course. Became great pals and were clearly headed for a romance. Walked into the student cafeteria one morning and there she is seated at a table with a group of girls, one of whom I recognized as her room mate. As I sat down in front of the room mate she mishandled her plate and her strawberry muffin rolled off the table. I caught before it hit the floor. We had a good laugh about it, puns aplenty about handling her muffin.
Couple of weeks later, I've got concert tickets from my campus rep job for CBS Records (now Sony Music). The blonde said she couldn't go, saying her former boyfriend was having a bad time in Ottawa and she had to go see him. Oh.
Bumped into her room mate in a hallway lounge next day and after a brief moan about the blonde skipping our date, she volunteered to see the show with me. Off we went, drank merrily at a wine bar near the arena, went to the show (Moody Blues. Yawn) and proceeded to tinkle off everyone around us with our non-stop chatter. Left the show early and went back to the wine bar. Had a fun night, walked her home but slept alone on the couch.
Became friends over the days that followed. She was a former ski racer and I enjoyed skiing so we decided to hit a hill north of Toronto. Nearly there and my old beater car overheats and, by good fortune, we coast into a service centre in a cloud of steam. While the car got fixed, we ate at the lunch counter while gabbing away. We still laugh about ordering the menu's 'home made chili' and soon hearing the sound of an electric can opener.
The car repaired, we hit the hill for a fun afternoon and burgers and beer back home. A few days later, I'm in a group just behind her a bit on campus and couldn't stop watching the way her well formed backside moved as she walked ahead in tight jeans and tall boots. And that was it. I knew I was hooked. With her blonde room mate now visiting Ottawa every weekend, my sleepovers weren't on the couch anymore.
We wound up living together the following year, lived apart briefly when work and other factors made it prudent but never wavered in our commitment. We were shacked up a few years before tying the knot. This summer, our son and daughter will join us at our cottage with friends and family as we celebrate 35 years of marriage and 40 years owning the cottage.
And I'm still her muffin man. She, erm, bakes delicious gluten free ones, too.