Tiny Imperfect Fiction 12

Unlikely Love Story

Andrew and Linda were opposites. He was a devout conservative, she was a passionate progressive. He loved to luxuriate by the pool and day-drink, re-creating Saint Tropez circa 1978 each Saturday. She liked dark libraries, 24/7 total sun protection, and herbal teas. He was nostalgic for “when men were men and women were women." She believed in fluid, ambiguous gender roles. Where their love found fertile ground was far beyond love's typical dead ends. 

Andrew's punctilious gestures of chivalry and social civility, swept Linda off of her progressive sandals. She found his old-fashioned adherence to gentlemanly manners utterly romantic and irresistible. Both Andrew and Linda looked at popular culture with a supercilious glance and clung to each other on a life raft made of poetry, Foreign Affairs magazine, and regular dates at the symphony. Most essential was the vesica of their union, the place where both of their hearts spoke the same luminous thought: I choose you to love.