Leah and her husband had filed for divorce and had lived apart for a short while.  When we met her, the divorce was underway.  This fact led to an occasion made possible only by its timing.  The three of us went out to dinner one night and were enjoying drinks at the restaurant bar.  A man sitting nearby sent a drink over to Leah and followed up the action by approaching her.  She thanked him for the drink but declined the offer of his business card.  “I’m sorry,” she said, “but I have a boyfriend, a girlfriend, and a husband right now, and that’s plenty.”

The happy times, though, were incomparable.  Atop tousled bed sheets or larking under a sunny sky, the three of us shared a genuine satisfaction at our growing bond, an exhilaration and a gladness at the communion we shared.  In public we acted as we did in private.  We held hands and kissed freely, we interacted without self-awareness.  The periodic stares of strangers were nothing to us.  Maybe some were appalled, maybe some were jealous.  Who cared?  We were happy together.

•   •   •   •   •

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