Tonight, one of my closest friends and two of her coworkers did happy hour at Flemings in City Centre. It is one of our favorite after work drink places. Happy Hour turned into dinner. The night was perfect. I love meeting new people. Both of her coworkers were very cool people.
The four of us are all single and not dating anyone, so naturally the topic of dating and relationships came up. We were seated at a booth in the bar, and I noticed an attractive older couple take a spot up at the actual bar while they waited on their table. The woman pulled off sexy elegance in her red cocktail dress. On the wrong woman someone might say the dress was too young, but with her long hair and legs she definitely made it work. Her man was well dressed in a suit.
The two sat together, and he laughed, leaning in close to her as she told what must have been a very captivating story. He made eye contact in a way that a man does when he is turned on by a woman’s charm. He touched her arm gently when it came to his turn to talk as if he was providing her some kind of reassurance after her story. Her hand rested lovingly on his knee. These were two people obviously extremely happy to be together.
I told the people that I was dining with that I wanted to find exactly that. Someone to share my life with, grow old with, someone that is still captivating by me 20 years from now. Everyone looked over and observed what I saw. The only man in our group, an older, successful, attractive man himself, said, “Those people just met. They are way into each other.” A short debate began about how the couple knew each other and for how long.
The general consensus was that their love was new, or they were old friends, or perhaps even brother and sister. I was the only person that thought they had been married for a long time. I am not sure if it was what I believed or what I wanted to believe. I thought that the way that they looked at each other was something that comes with time and a lot of life experience together.
I told my friends and her coworkers that I really wanted to know their story. My friend hopped up to ask. The couple loved the attention. It clearly made their night. They laughed as my friend told her our debate, and that the general consensus of the group was they had not been together long because they looked too happy. The man and woman both delighted over this.
I was right! The couple has been married for over 20 years, and they have six children together. They said that their secret to happiness was the lifelong decision to make it work. I want to be that woman in 25 years.