Friday, March 27, 2009

Fidelity

Except for a few unmemorable moments of my, somewhat, feckless and reckless youth, I have always been safe around women. I think I am aging like a fine wine.

This is a little tale about me. It's not really a story, it's just one of life's many experiences and it helps define a person and what they feel inside. For the sake of anonymity, I will call my two friends in this story Dick and Jane.

I've known Dick and Jane for a long time and we are pretty close. We might see each other every two weeks now, sometimes more often, sometimes less, but the fact remains, we are still good friends. I think the older we get, the more activities we get involved in, where we don't see all of our friends as often as we used to. We probably are closer to family members, including children and grandchildren, and that sort of detracts from our outside influences a little. What was that line in a John Lennon song? "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans..." How true. Now, there was a man before his time. In my opinion, he was a man for all seasons.

About ten years ago, Dick was out of town on business. I ran into Jane and we had a nice conversation over drinks. May I add that Jane is a very attractive woman? Jane and I have always enjoyed each other's company, so I didn't feel uncomfortable in the least. As a matter of fact, the more we drank, the more relaxed we became with each other, until...

... Jane took my hand and pressed it firmly into her full and  supple breast. That took me by complete surprise.

"Dave, how come you never tried hitting on me? A lot of guys have, but never you. Why? Don't you find me attractive?" I gently and slowly pulled my hand away. It did not belong there.

"Of course I do. You're a total babe," I responded. "I just don't hit on my friends' women, and certainly, not married ones." She stared into my eyes. "You and Dick have been my friends for a long time now. You are my friend. Dick is my friend. I could not do this to him. I have too much respect for him and I have too much respect for you. Besides, I could never live with myself. You are both really good people."

Jane continued to look at me and finally said, "You know, Dave, you are an honorable man." I really thought I had already known that about myself, but it's always nice to hear. "That's one of the reasons why I love you so much." She meant that as a friend.

We continued with our drinks and put the incident out of our minds. Years later, I had the opportunity to do it again, but she was way too drunk and I was still an honorable guy. I drove her home one night and safely tucked her into bed, fully clothed. Today, I can proudly look Dick in the face and feel no guilt. No remorse. No pain. I'm sure he never heard anything about those incidents and I'm not about to ruin a very good friendship. With either of them.

Today, I can look in the mirror and stare at a respectful man. I like what I see.

13 comments:

  1. A new posting! Well good for you that you like your own image so much. Bit cold in bed though, sleeping with a mirror :)Just kidding! I suppose it would have been different if you had secretly been in love with her? Or not?
    I once had the same thing when I was single myself, a married man kissed me with passion, while his wife, a good friend of mine, was in the toilet. He freaked me out!I never told her. They got divorced later. I only didn't tell her because of the friendship. And it had meant nothing, it was just a kiss in the heat of the moment after a nice evening out. Big deal. I never liked him again though. But I think if I had been loyal to my gf, I would have said something. So in my case, I still feel a bit guilty. Funny how you can look at things differently.
    Jane wasn't very subtle,was she?

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  2. I often wondered if she ever let anyone get away with anything with her. Obviously, other men tried. All I do know is that they are still together and happy and I can look him straight in the eyes and feel no guilt.

    No, she wasn't subtle at all, but sometimes alcohol uninhibits the inhibited.

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  3. Someone who is uninhibited might be unafraid to say whatever they want whenever they want. They might tell you something startling. Uninhibited could also mean walking around naked at home or at the beach, and not worrying about it.

    Obviously, inhibited would be the opposite of that. Modest might be another way of describing inhibited.

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  4. Shy. Self consious. Sensable :)

    Thank you for explaining. Now won't you get in trouble if Jane or her husband reads this posting...?

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  5. No, not at all, because her name isn't really Jane.

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  6. Fidelity... Such a rare thing to find among friends! Well, not among real ones, of course. I hope you will find a good friend. A real one. One who is always loyal to you :)
    Perhaps you can return the favor to that person.

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  7. Dave you are a remarkable man..one i admire and who knows maybe Ina is right, soon you may find that right person.....

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  8. I somehow think that Dave is on the course of something wonderful, will stayed tuned in...let it play before my eyes........

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  9. Anonymus, you scare me to bits lol. Do you have ESP? I only have Emails
    Sent Permanently to stay updated.

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  10. Which was just a play on words!

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  11. The wonderfull is yet to come I suppose :) I wonder what it will be! I hope David will win a big money proze somehow. Don't spend it on cars, 2 is enough :)

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  12. Why are you moderating this post? Did you get strange responses? Well it is a bit of a strange subject of course.

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