His and Hers

She was blonde, he dark, her head buried in his shoulder as they strolled arm and arm.

They looked European the way they dressed, simply, but with taste, as if they both entered the world that way.

I noticed her brows despite her blondness were black, matching the cashmere scarf draping his neck as if where one ended, the other began.

I knew their love was still in the box, the way they couldn’t take their eyes off each other, making me sigh, remembering, how that is.

You think, this is it, always and ever, your heart beating for two.

It was like that falling in love with John Kipp when I was 17 and he, 35, launching my fancy for older men.

I thought I’d love him forever even after a a friend said…he’s only the first Susannah, of many waiting in the wings.

When it ended, how I cried, not knowing he was merely the trailer to a great flick that had yet to be filmed.

So as I watched the perfect couple enter a cafe like movie stars, I thought again of John and how he’d tell me he’d never leave and how I believed him with my whole being, heralding…

the optimism and naivete of youth.

So tell me, tooling through your teens, who was it that you thought you’d love forever?  

SB