Something Wholly Unexpected

I recently ran into a guy I know . . . more of an acquaintance than a friend. He works at a local branch of a national retail chain, and once upon a time, I dated one of his co-workers for a while. His name is Steve. The funny thing is that I know quite a bit about him — about his wife, his kids, that he's worked at this particular store for coming up on 20 years in January . . . but I don't know his last name.

At any rate, I recently was in this store for the singular purpose of buying cat litter, and I ran into Steve. It's been a while since I've seen him . . . and this is pretty much the only way we connect — when I'm in his store and he's working at the time. My mom was with me, so I introduced Steve to Betty . . . and we all chit-chatted a bit.

Steve mentioned to us that he and his wife will be celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary next month. "Congratulations!" I told him. "That's wonderful. So how are you going to celebrate this major milestone?"

Steve said that he and his wife would probably take an extended vacation in the summer sometime...because they both work and cannot get any time off right now — him particularly, being in the retail industry, at the holiday season.

So I said, "But you will take her out for a very nice dinner, right? And at least one night in an exclusive hotel, even if it's local."

Steve kind of nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"No, Steve. I'm serious. Do something radical . . . something wholly unexpected . . . something she would never, ever think it was possible for you to do. Show her how much she means to you. I'll bet you could really rekindle the romance that way."

The next thing I knew, Steve was grinning from ear to ear . . . falling in love with the idea of letting his wife know he still loved her.

I have absolutely no idea what compelled me to suggest such a thing to a man who really is no more than a casual acquaintance . . . but I did. And, who knows what will happen because of my suggestion.

As we walked out of the store, I told him that I would be looking for a status report the next time I saw him.

Happy anniversary, Steve and Carol!