Can’t Help Falling …

/ roughwighting

Chat GPT, falling in love, late love“It’s right under your nose! Can’t you tell?” Cindy asks, with obvious impatience.

“Nothing is under my nose nor under anything else on my body. You’re looking for something that’s just not there,” Jennifer replies tartly.

Cindy rolls her eyes. Maybe her still-single friend is still single at the age of 48 because she has no clue how to read the clues.

“Jennifer, Bennie calls you once a day. He brings fresh mulch for your garden in the spring and bulbs to plant in the fall. He shares his favorite recipe for ‘Noonie’s Pot Roast’ in the winter and he stares at you as if you’re the stars, moon, and sky in one full-bodied woman.” https://pixabay.com/photos/sirloin-beef-pot-roast-potatoes-1011583/ pot roast, food for love

Now it’s time for Jennifer to roll her round gray eyes tinged with disbelief and maybe a teardrop of hope. “Bennie is just being nice because he was Phillip’s best friend.” 

Cindy guides Jennifer away from the Zumba class that had just finished with Elvis’ sweet slow song “Can’t Help Falling in Love” as they stretched for a final cool down. Cindy figures it will be a perfect segue to bring up love to her friend.

Jennifer’s husband, Phil, disappeared five years ago, now presumed dead. He’d gone on a solitary trek in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and never returned. Bennie and over 50 other hikers searched for Phillip for weeks, but his body was never found.

“Anyone can tell that Bennie is smitten …”

Jennifer stops Cindy with a glare, unusual considering their 22-year-friendship. “Look, don’t stick your nose into something you don’t understand. Ben and I are good friends. I’m not going to ruin that with false assumptions that ….”

Chat GPT, planting bulbs“Oh. My. God. False assumptions? The guy came to me two years ago asking me if you were finally ready to get past Phillip’s disappearance. You told me to tell him No. Hey, if you just want friendship, that’s fine, but personally, I don’t think Bennie is going to wait any longer. He’ll find someone else who can be ‘more than friends’ and with whom he can plant more than bulbs. Capisce?”

Jennifer suddenly bursts into laughter. “Dear god, when you begin speaking in Italian, I know I’m in trouble. Listen, Ben asked me out yesterday for what he called, ‘a real date.’ He gave me a dozen pink roses at my front door with the invitation. I said yes. He also suggested we don’t tell you, because you’d pressure us into marrying within a month.”

Cindy stares at Jennifer open mouthed, not knowing whether to be mad or amused. “You bucking fitch,” she finally says, and they walk out of the studio arm in arm, until Cindy adds, “I know a perfect place for a reception.”

87 thoughts on “Can’t Help Falling …”

  1. Oh Pam! I just love how you hook us from the get, keep us fully engaged and give us a little twist that either makes us gasp or crack up in laughter.

    This is just fabulous. Loved it!

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  6. You know there’s another chapter. Bennie shows up, they head off for the date, and it turns out they’re joined by a third party: Phil, whom Bennie finally found living under an alias in the mountains. (Why not?)

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  17. You can tell those two have been friends for a long time.

    I’m trying to remember if it’s a movie or a book, but there’s a story similar to Jennifer’s. Her husband goes missing, and after many years, she moves on. After she falls in love with someone new (they become either married or a couple), the husband reappears out of the blue. I can’t remember how it turned out.

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    • First, yes, you can tell long-time friendships. They really “tell it like it is.”
      Second, funny that you don’t remember the ending of the movie or book. I’m afraid it may have been melodramatic, or horror, or both? Someone on the blog guessed that Phil changed his identity and THEN showed up. I’m thinking Phil got lost and expired up in the mountain. This happens too often up in the NH White Mountains so is unfortunately realistic.

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    • Perhaps this is why summer is my favorite season! I don’t have to feel guilty for enjoying fun, light-hearted stories. 🙂 On the other hand, my granddaughter ‘has to’ read Jane Eyre for upcoming school, so I started it as well. It’s been years, and I feel soooooooo badly for Jane!! I forgot how mistreated she was!

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    • This is a light story with loss, friendship, love. I looked up chick lit, since it’s not used as much in today’s vernacular and found this: “Widely used in the 1990s and 2000s, the term has fallen out of fashion with publishers, with numerous writers and critics rejecting it as inherently sexist. Novels identified as chick lit typically address romantic relationships, female friendships, and workplace struggles in humorous and lighthearted ways.”

      🙂

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    • Thanks, Marian. Funny how at times we readers are made to feel guilty for enjoying (or writing) a story full of friendship, relationships, loss and love. But funny how many readers enjoy these stories! 🙂

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  26. There seem to be White Mountains everywhere. I live in the White Mountains too so I don’t hike. 😉 It would be awful to start a new relationship and have the old one turn up again. Glad she decided to give it a try.

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