It's a vast mystery and has to be so for us all. I'm now almost in my 30's and I met one of my good friends in college freshman year. Soon enough, she invited me home for dinner knowing that I was living far from my home. When I met her mother, she and I had a thunderbolt meeting and the 20 year difference between us had no meaning. We did not speak of it but gave each other long, knowing glances for years.

After knowing her for two years, I was in the kitchen helping her clean up after a meal with her family. She whispered, finally, "I know what you want and I want the same thing, but it's just not in the cards." I did not want to hear that or acknowledge the truth of it but time passed and we were just two ships passing in the night. Those few words of truth and contact made a lot of difference, however. They told me that it was real and not imagined.

I did not want to dishonor the very real feelings we had for each other by writing a fiction so if some are disappointed, my apologies. Sometimes life is just a puzzle but in my view, honesty pays off.