JIM WALTERS AND DAVID SHARPE
They score true love. It was those ”gorgeous hairy legs,” said Tampa real estate agent Jim Walters, still picturing his husband, David Sharpe, climbing up the bleachers on a sunny afternoon at the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance 2009 Florida Cup. David, a Miami real estate lawyer, came to Tampa to compete in the tournament; Jim’s friend had twisted his arm to get him to come watch his singles match. “I had very little interest in tennis, plus it was Halloween and there was the big, crazy All Hallows’ Eve party that night,” said Jim, 59. “But I was so bored and lonely… two years after losing my partner of 23 years to lung cancer.” As David tells it, Jim “absolutely crashed” the players’ party that night. Jim insists “the hosts were friends who made me promise to come to look for David.” In either version, the two men easily talked for two hours, until David announced the team’s midnight curfew and left. “I didn’t believe it for a minute,” Jim said. “Why would adults have a curfew? I just knew he must be in a relationship with someone.”
Real estate agent Jim Walters, left, and attorney David Sharpe couldn’t help noticing each other at a tennis tournament in Tampa in 2009. Family photo
He left immediately, too depressed to go to the Halloween party. Nor did he return to the second day of the tournament. Then his phone rang a few days later. Would he like to meet again, David asked? There was so much more to talk about. Within six months the couple was modernizing a 1920s house on Bayshore Boulevard.
Jim is a top agent at Smith & Associates and David joined a small law firm in Tampa. They also began planning their wedding at the Park Hyatt in Toronto. “It was the first gay wedding for most of the 80 guests, including me,” said David, 41, who performed two classical works on piano during the service. — Amy Scherzer
Then his phone rang a few days later. Would he like to meet again, David asked? There was so much more to talk about.
44 bay
FEBRUARY 2017