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My type andiron I liked a bad boy, and had enjoyed so Messy hair? Yes, please Artistic? Yes, please--musician, painter, performance artist, what have you

My ood provider, steady, accoh spereneration several tie of motherly influence, no doubt spawned by the birth of her third grandchild and her wild desire to have a baker’s dozen, lately she had been setting up dates forout of style In the last teeks alone I’d been out with Harry Thomson, Tommy Dickerson, and now Richard Harrison A financial planner, a tax lawyer, and now a CPA Sauy, same pants, same brain Touy, if you want to roll over all of this into a 401(k) I’ll do that, but you’d miss out on the more attractive shelter over here! So what I proposed was--"

"Dick? Can I call you Dick?"

"Actually, I’d prefer Richard, but--"

"Dick, I’ht here This was a mistake"

He looked crestfallen "Darn it all, I knee should have ordered the chicken fingers This berretta cheese is a little too exotic for et our waitress and--"

He held up his hand for some help with his "berretta," and I slapped mine on the table

"It’s not the cheese, it’s not the restaurant, it’s not even you, Dick It’s me I should never have let my mother talk me into this"

"Your mother is terrific Great assets"

"No more asset talk I want to be ro special, rare, passionate, out of the ordinary!" I replied, ot worked up I leaned across the table "I want so off the table, throw e me to within an inch of my life Can you do that, Dick?" I slae

"Passionate? Out of the ordinary?" He gulped, pulling at his tie Then a strange look came over his face "You erated wink

Oh My God

"Hoe doing over here?" a cheerful voice asked, and I looked up into the face of our waitress

"Dick needs so a twenty out of lass I pushed back from the table, went around to his side, and patted him on the shoulder "Sorry this didn’t work out" The relief was so very evident on his face it was alrabbed my jacket and headed for the door

Another one bites the dust Or chicken finger, in this case

As I shut the front door to ainst polished concrete, the lights low and a bit lonely I peeled off ht of Dick’s face when I took it off Tattoos were co like neck ink on a girl to uy in a suit blink I shouldn’t snicker; he didn’t deserve total annihilation like that Not over appetizers I tamped the snicker down as I passed by the wall photo of my mom on my way to kitchen "Sorry, Ma, but come on Berretta?"

Ithe effects toht, and deciding the hell with it, I splashed a little ainst the counter Polished concrete, like the floor My home had an industrial feel to it: clean, uncluttered, orderly Steel, chro one as a line of pictures, all in black frames with black mattes Spaced exactly three inches apart (above, below, and in between) were photos of ether

It had been interesting, growing up By the ti me, they were so used to football, hockey, and baseball, that into the jerseys I went, and never even entertained the idea of a dress I wore dresses soht-over-fishnets-and-combat-boots type Courtney Love circa 1996 Without the s up with five older brothers meant that everyone in tothat became harder to lump me into when I developed serious lumps of my ohen I hit puberty, but the fact that I ran around in ball caps and sweatshirts continued thein my brothers’ footsteps also meant that I excelled at school, particularly rade Franklins are good at math and science, therefore as a Franklin, I was too The hitch in the giddy-up was that I also loved art Drawing, painting, you na, an innate sense of placeeek But between after-school sports and advanced placee prep classes, it was a side that I didn’t have ed to explore The faroomed for And I followed suit--for a while

Next to the frale piece of artwork in the rooht corals, cotton-candy pinks, soft curling puffs of white April in Paris I letwhat it felt like to spend my days in a studio in France Heaven A heaven that was a world and a computer software company away