New Couple Friends

Stan likes to travel. His whole family does. That’s an understatement. I say I don’t like to travel but I really do, once I’m there. I just don’t like the disruption of stopping my life, leaving projects in limbo, packing, and deciding what to do with Zoe-the-Dog.

One thing Stan enjoys about me is that my closest friends seem to live elsewhere. It’s the story of my life. I meet a person or couple I really like. Then, what do they do? They move. Should I take it personally? 

Stan wastes no energy wondering what people think of him. He just says, “Let’s go visit them.” It’s not about the free digs. Ok, that’s some of it. But Stan is mostly curious and interested in other people’s lives and he’s not one bit shy about meeting total strangers. He can walk in, meet them, and start cooking dinner for them in their kitchens. 

I had no idea how far he could take this until last spring, at his daughter Jenny’s wedding, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (Out of the country, and the whole family came, of course.) 

It was the afternoon before the rehearsal dinner, the night of Stan’s “Father-of-the-Bride” speech. He had worked on it most of that day, then fell into a full-snore afternoon nap. I don’t know how he does it. I was too keyed up to sleep and I didn’t have to give a speech. 

I was fidgeting with my phone, when it started ringing one of those weird rings that comes from Facebook messaging. Jason Bradley! I hadn’t spoken to him in decades. We met at TGI Friday’s way back in the late ’70s. Who could turn down a date with a handsome guy with a British accent, fresh out of Oxford University? 

Jason had landed a job in the oil and gas business during Houston’s Boomtown days. I was trying to get my first job in the news business, which was still actually hiring people. We were both more interested in moving our careers along than finding the loves of our lives. At some point, I recall, Jason’s job took him overseas, and we basically lost touch. Still, I have fond memories of Jason and have occasionally wondered how his life turned out. 

Recently, I found him on Facebook. He had actually married a Cindy, had three young adult sons, one engaged, and three Labrador Retrievers. Jason appeared to be having a great life I was happy to see, and shot him a quick wave. But that was six months ago. 

He apparently only saw it at the moment he called. I guess he was happy to see it. When I didn’t pick up, he called again, and again, and again with Stan snoring next to me less than two hours before the rehearsal dinner. I hoped the ringing would wake him up. Then I could explain who Jason was, and we could get on with the call-back. 

Once Stan was standing on two feet, I explained. As expected, Stan was more intrigued with the prospect of meeting someone new and interesting than feeling threatened. Moments later, the three of us were on speakerphone.

“Hello, Cindy.” There was that delightful British accent. I quickly introduced Jason to Stan and explained our time crunch. In our brief conversation we learned that one of Jason’s three sons was finishing graduate school at Rice University in Houston, that Jason’s Cindy was Cindy Cash, a cousin of the legendary Johnny Cash, that they lived in Arlington, Texas. He said that Cindy was a professional fundraiser devoted to Open Arms Health Clinic in Arlington for families with limited budgets. And, oh yeah, they have a second home in Durango, Colorado. Stan perked up on that one. “Durango? Can we visit?” 

My face broke into a thousand embarrassed pieces with that question. “Absolutely,” came the British reply. I could tell Jason meant it. But was he speaking for just himself? He and Cindy have been married a long time. Hopefully they have their signals worked out better than Stan and I. 

There is another Jason too, Jason Presley, the one about to marry Stan’s daughter, who would be looking for us soon at the rehearsal dinner. We had to go, but first, I needed to sit a moment to give my head a chance to stop spinning. 

Stan’s Father-of-the-Bride speech was declared a classic, one for the ages. Then spring dissolved into the record-breaking heat we are all trying to forget. Even I, the traveling “non-traveler” wanted out. We flew into Albuquerque, then spent 16 days hovering outside of the heat dome, mixing two friend visits with three B&Bs, including two days in Durango with Jason and Cindy, our second stop.

Before we arrived, we stopped to pick up some wine and found the largest, brightest bunch of sunflowers I had ever seen. They led the way as we broke through 40 years into their large, lovely home. Cindy, Jason, and the Labs greeted us with Open Arms. (Pardon my subtle plug for Cindy’s favorite charity.) 

At some point into the visit, I felt Stan and I were making new couple friends, who can’t break my heart by moving. They are already out of town.