Casey first remembers seeing Kelly across the crowded high school cafeteria at Wildwood Catholic High when he was just a lowly sophomore and she–a stellar senior in a snug wool pinafore. He touts this moment as the beginning of their love affair, but she does not.
For starters, she didn’t “see” him until years later, after she graduated from college and backpacking through Europe–after he had dropped out of school himself, and worked at the casinos, and ended relationships with Brenda and then Lisa.
Not to mention that there were so many attractive young ladies that Casey recalls from Kelly’s class that she imagines that had he married one of the others, he would make the same claim.
Privately however, she enjoys his version. She likes the romance of it–of being the one who was noticed.
It was five years later when Kelly first met Casey when he called for a job. Unbeknownst to her, Casey had been helping out in the early spring at a family restaurant that Kelly managed in the summers. The owners (Kelly’s aunt and uncle) felt obliged to give this guy a job in return; but not wanting to hire an inexperienced college drop out herself (for the fine dining restaurant), Kelly’s aunt pawned Casey off on her (for the Crab House), even going so far as to give this guy her home number–when she was recuperating from wisdom teeth surgery!
Any irritation Kelly felt for Casey soon disintegrated the afternoon he reported for training. He sat opposite her at the end of a long banquet table where she introduced menu items to new staff, ending with a demonstration of eating a hard shell crab. It was in that moment that she first noticed him, and she noticed that he was noticing her.
Kelly’s heard that there are angels of some sort that support each partnership– a third entity created of love. She hadn’t known of this then, but when she thinks back, she certainly felt the energy of something bigger then the two of them–stretched across the table between them–from her eyes to his and back again. When he smiled at her, she felt a warmth deep in her belly.
Soon the summer season was rolling and there was little time to notice warm bellies or angels. Kelly enjoyed Casey’s flirtations, but enjoyed those from the bartender, and the musician, and some of the bus boys as well, not to the mention the steady flow of customers. As a manager however, she grew to like Casey more and more; he had an easy way with customers that melted any frustrations they might have with his occasional over sights.
As a rule, Kelly didn’t date employees, but she did have a congenial relationship with them. At the first late night staff party in June, she found herself admiring this young man she had been forced to hire. He sat leaning against a tree with an amused ease as he finished off the spiked watermelon he had brought for the occasion.
Kelly wished she could take him home as a late night snack (she was never very serious about dating), and when she left the party, she hoped; no, she willed, him to follow her. She watched in her rear view mirror as he pulled out behind her car and took each of the turns that she did as she headed toward her apartment two blocks from beach. She felt both excited and afraid, and then dismayed, and relieved as she looked back to see him turn off head toward the bay.
Summers at the Crab House Restaurant were delightful. Everyone was young and tan and vibrant and flush with cash. Some nights there was live music and always a sense of festivity in the air. The staff clearly enjoyed their work and each other.
When there was a lull in the activity, you could always find back massages being passed around. As the alpha female–dispenser of checks and schedules and of Saturday night drinks and late night munchies–Kelly was a frequent recipient of the massage ritual. Casey was an enthusiastic participant. Their interest in each other percolated. She recalls him being bold enough once to compliment her legs–and how she flatly ignored him, but inwardly glowed.
Just before the 4th of July, Kelly was dumped by her long-time highschool sweetheart (who lived an hour away inland, working as an accountant.) For two weeks, Kelly led a desperate life, neither eating or drinking, and wearing sunglasses to work to hide her swollen eyes. She left the restaurant early each night so that she could climb into her car and release the sobbing she had held in all day.
An old flame came to the rescue and out they went on a date, but Kelly couldn’t stir her feelings. Suddenly, flings weren’t fun anymore. The chapter of frivolity in her life had ended. Kelly’s long-time defenses were dropped, and Casey deftly moved in.
She remembers their first kiss (he passed out shortly after), and the first time they made love (they both passed out shortly after), but she doesn’t remember the exact moment she knew.
She can see it in her mind’s eye, but isn’t sure if it happened all at once or over time. He was standing there leaning against the post beside the coffee station, next to the bar, and to her, he looked like an island–a safe haven upon which to rest, for a lifetime (only she hadn’t made that claim to either of them yet.)
It was Casey’s easiness that Kelly felt most about him. Who knew that love and a lifetime could be built on such a soft beginning? But there it was, and twenty years later, she stills seeks refuge on the island of his embrace.
They say that rebound relationships don’t last, that people who live together before getting married end up in divorce, that Virgos make challenging husbands, that first-born wives drive their partners crazy, that love built on great sex will never flourish…
Are they still in love, you might ask? And what would they say…
Kelly might tell you that their love is like a comfortable couch, plush and vibrant red, her pleasure so deep that she neither knows or cares if her life could be happier… or she might liken their relationship to a tree, upon whose sturdiness she leans, finding rest in its shade and drawing beauty as it changes with the seasons.
And what of Casey, how would he define his love–once lusty and tender–twenty years later?
Casey still traces the curves of her body, and drinks in the softness of her flesh, and wants her happiness above anything else, even his own certainty. He still sees her at forty as he once did across a crowded cafeteria, and he still loves how she can manage anything she tackles, and how one so competent, needs his love to stay afloat.
Will it last you wonder? They do too. Surely happiness is a slippery slope, and once the ultimate blessing of children comes, it is hard to see one another through the fog of life’s business. Only time will tell.
“Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be.” If this adage is true, then they’re in for the joy of a lifetime.
by Kelly Salasin, 2006
