There was this young lady who worked there too. He, being the office mayor, knew everybody. They became really cool. Layoffs occur! The day the layoffs began my boy and I headed to grab some food. The young lady and another coworker just happened to be walking outta the office at the same time. We do lunch together. She sat across from me. And I ain't say shit cuz I was just blown by how gorgeous and cool she was. "She didn't even know I existed" as said in many cliched movie scenes. Plus, I was in a relationship at the time.

3 years go by. I've since relocated to Atl. She is now in the process of doing the same. My boy calls me up to say that he gave her my number because I could be a resource for her in a foreign land. I was blown cuz I'd had a crush on the young lady for years but had not seen her since I left that old gig back in '02.

Five minutes after he and I talked, she called. I set it up to be the tourguide cuz I was in no way, shape, or form ready to entertain aything else since my marriage had ended 8 months prior. Took her on a tour, through some parts of the city, on a cool Sunday evening in January '06. After that, we walked into a pool hall / karaoke bar on Peachtree.

On the way out the door, which I'd held open for her, that woman walked past me and I knew that it was her. I watched her take 10 to 15 steps. Her poie. Her smile. Her conversation. Fast forward to now, we doin' it and we doin' it together. Had it not been for my boy, a failed CLEC, our relocations to Atlanta, and our subseqent return trips to the city where I first laid eyes on her, we wouldn't be taking this trip together 9 years later.

John Legend's "So High" was being sung in that karaoke bar that night...