Our first
date was at the local Starbucks. I am a
bit of a coffee connoisseur and always hoped that my future wife would share my
tastes for coffee. I had heard that
while in high school, she worked at Tim Hortons which gave me some hope that
she would be a coffee lover. My hope was
that someday we would sit together sipping our coffees while listening to some
Puccini or while having a discussion about the Victorian era.
Courtney
met me at the door of Starbucks and introduced herself in a soft, doe-like
voice. “Hi, I’m Courtney.” We headed to the counter to order and
Courtney suggested I order first since she wasn’t sure what she was going to
get.
“I’ll have
a tall bold coffee, please.” I said. I
looked at Courtney hoping that she would say something like “I’ll have the
same” or “add a couple of espresso shots to mine please”. Instead she ordered a
‘strawberry-mango-passion fruit-watermelon-blackberry-cumquat-kiwi-tazo-tea.’
The barista
prepared our beverages and slid them over the counter. My coffee smelled rich and deep and the
colour was a beautiful ebony. Courtney’s
tea was passed to her and I cringed. The
colour was fluorescent pink and reminded me of Mattel. It smelled like a scented candle and no doubt
could double as potpourri as well.
It quickly
became evident over the next couple of weeks that Courtney was not the quiet,
intellectual, NPR listening, school-loving, book-reading girl that I thought
she was. This was driven home to me on a
beautiful summer evening. She said she
was going to meet me at my apartment so I waited outside for her arrival. While I was waiting, I heard a noise coming
from down the road. I strained to hear
what the sound was. It sounded like an
ice cream truck but ice cream trucks did not venture out into the country. I listened again and then heard the distinct
lyrics of Willoughby Wallaby Woo. I could also recognize Raffi’s voice
accompanied by a girl’s voice that sounded suspiciously like Courtney’s. Suddenly her green Sunfire roared into
view. She shut her beloved Sunfire off
and came bounding out of the car.
 |
| Note the matching hat and shirt. Classic. |
“Guess
what! I just sold all of my books on
Kijiji!” she said proudly.
I was still
stunned from Willoughby Wallaby Woo and had a hard time understanding what
she had just said.
“You sold
your books? Did you run out of room on
your bookshelves or were they doubles?”
“Nope. They were cluttering up my room so I got rid
of them. Perfect eh?”
We went
inside and I made Courtney some kind of fruit tea, and made myself a
cappuccino. As I busied myself with the
drinks, Courtney sat down on the couch.
“What are
you listening to? It sounds so screechy! I think my ears are bleeding.” she
commented. It was one of my favourite
pieces too – Ave Verum Corpus.
I brought
her tea over to her and sat down on the couch with my cappuccino. Courtney, who had turned off the music and
was now humming Down By the Bay, got
up and plopped down practically on my lap.
My cappuccino went flying and splattered across the couch – the foamy
richness would never be experienced or enjoyed and was lost for all time to the
floral cushions.
It was at
that moment that I came to two conclusions: first that we were total opposites
and secondly, I was perfectly fine with that.
She was funny, pretty, and kept me guessing. I never knew what was going to happen next
with Courtney.
Today is
our two year anniversary – not a big deal for some of you veterans who are
pulling up on twenty, thirty or forty years – but at the rate time flies, we’ll
be there soon. I look forward to
spending the rest of my days, however long or short, with my Courtney. God in his infinite wisdom knew that Courtney
was the one for me, even though we are opposites in almost every way. I’m very thankful for my soul-mate and
friend and thankful for our opposite traits.
