She wished she could have said it was across a crowded dance floor, but it was alongside a noisy netball court she had first seen him.

“Darling,” she had said on more than one occasion, “I saw you with your daughter, and I thought what a nice man you were the way you interacted with her.”

“I don’t remember you,” he’d said feeling terrible that she’d noticed him and he not her. “I must have had a lot on my mind then,” he gave as the best explanation. After all, it had been twenty years ago.

So much had happened in all those intervening years. They had grown older, pursued careers, him in International Affairs and she in Medicine.

Now they were older, and he had long retired from the workforce, and she was about to do the same. There was so much they had in common, he found it uncanny the number of times she had said something about how she felt and vice-versa only to find they both felt the same.

He was happy away from the pressure of work, the expectation, the demand for results and diplomacy when dealing with people little more than idiots. He’d found stamp collecting a great hobby in retirement, stamps took him indirectly all round the world, and he loved the chase to discover the whereabouts of some of the rarest stamps.

She had conducted a very successful practice, and now retirement loomed she wanted to put in place everything she could to facilitate a successful and comfortable retirement.

Money wasn’t going to be an issue as they both attracted generous pension plans.

They had discovered the sheer magic of being together, of settling in on the lounge, beside each other, holding hands and watching some mindless but engaging movie.

They made each other laugh, and in their own humble opinions, it wasn’t going to come any better than that.

“Darling,” she had said one evening as they sat watching the latest movie offering from Netflix, “fate has found a way of bringing us together.”

“How lucky are we,” he replied, passing her the popcorn.

Written for: https://mindlovemiserysmenagerie.wordpress.com/2019/07/25/tale-weaver-233-july-25th-darling/