Picture if you will, it’s Valentine’s Day 2002 and my (then) wife and I went to dinner with another couple.  We had, I thought, a nice time with M&W eating and talking at P.F. Chang’s.  Afterward we all went to Barnes & Noble, had a coffee and looked at books.  Little did I know at the time she was planning on leaving me, and actually already had the plans in the works.

Later that evening after we had picked up the kids and she had hastily excused herself to bed I went up to my office and got online.  Scrolling through the chat rooms I came upon a screen name that interested me.  I checked the profile and couldn’t help but notice the words “Go Vols” written at the bottom of her info.  Well you see, I am a big University of Tennessee football fan and the Vols, short for Volunteers, is how the school is known.  I sent her a instant message and we began to chat.  She was a single, 32 yr old professional woman in Tennessee named Susan.  We talked for a while that night.  Our chatting continued the next day and evolved into phone and webcam chats.  A few days later the bottom dropped and my wife left me.  It took a few days for the smoke to clear before I got back in touch with this pretty Tennessee fan from online, but get back in touch with her I sure did!

My parents live about 45 minutes from where Susan lived and after a few weeks I decided to take my kids home to visit my folks and Susan and I planned to meet, in the appropriate “public” place of course.  We met at the mall and as I walked in the main entrance there she sat, outside the Ruby Tuesday restaurant and folks, she was a vision of total loveliness!  We have since both confirmed that we felt like we had each fallen in love way before we had met, just due to the great talks/chats we had had, but seeing her sitting there was like one of those cheesy movies….the sky’s cleared and the angel’s began to sing.  I walked up to her and we hugged.

We walked around the mall and at some point our hands interlocked and it just felt natural.  Talking to her was so normal, everything about her just felt right.  We ended up going back to Ruby Tuesday and having dinner.  We ate and drank and our hands met again over the table.  Man, I was in heaven.  This beautiful, successful, intelligent and sexy woman was interested in me!!

After dinner we went out and got into my car and did a little “parking” right there in the mall parking lot.  Kissing her was awesome.  Being with her felt like I had finally come home.  We spent a good hour or two sitting there, talking, kissing and exploring each other.  It stopped there, there was no actual sex, we didn’t sneak off to a hotel.  We just shared that first time alone experience with one another.  I drove her to her car and after much more kissing we parted ways with the promise to get together again soon.

As I drove back to my parents house my thought’s were completely on her.  All I could think about was how, in the middle of this divorce thing, I had again found happiness.  I again felt like the world wasn’t going to end and things just might be good again.  She called me to tell me how happy she was to have met me.  She also revealed to me for the first time her major obsession.  Seemed she had just driven through the Starbucks drive thru and gotten herself a Frapachino (sp).  She sure does love her Fraps!!  Anyway…enough for tonight.   The rest of the story next time……stay tuned!!

Later y’all…