Love in the laundry room

Though born in the ‘30s, I’m intrigued by online dating. Always on the lookout for new stories, I thought I’d give it a whirl. Why not? A free service. No commitment or meeting unless mutually desired.

I sat down and wrote a straightforward bio with a current photo.

The response was amazing!

My favourites were a gentleman who confessed that his “sheetrock was slipping” and another who said he was a retired British fighter pilot. A photo showed him standing next to a biplane. WWI? The Sopwith Camel? I wasn’t the only senior casting a wider net.

But I gave it up. Good stories. But some of them broke my heart. And I still believe that love, if it comes, strikes unexpectedly from Real Life. The universe loves to surprise you.

Three years after losing my husband, I was having trouble with my Hoover. It was full to the brim, and refused to open, no matter what I did.

“This needs a man’s touch,” I finally admitted.

Outside my front door, I heard the deep rumble of a man’s voice. Hope surged in me. Scott, our building manager, would know what to do!

I grabbed the Hoover and rushed into the hall, next to our building’s laundry room.

“Scott!” I yelled. “I need help!”

A tall, broad-shouldered man turned to look at me.

“Aye, I’m a Scot,” he said, in the deepest Scottish brogue I’d ever heard. “But my name is James. How can I help you?”

“My Hoover,” I managed to gasp. “It’s stuck. I can’t empty it!”

He grasped the vacuum cleaner and gave it a sharp twist. Boom! It yielded instantly

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to his touch and spewed the dirt it had been hoarding all over his boots.

“Oh no!” I cried, mortally embarrassed, dropping to the carpet to try picking up the mess. “I’ll get a broom!”

“Nae need,” he said, shaking the filth off his feet, and pulling me to my feet. “What’s your name?”

“Anne,” I said, looking at him. Big. Tall. Handsome. Handy with Hoovers. About my age. What more could a girl want? “Would you like a cup of tea?”

“Always,” he said.

We walked to my apartment. He told me he’d lost his wife two years before. And that’s how it began. Outside the laundry room. Who’d have thought a Hoover would play Cupid?

So much for online dating. We’re still together. James, Hoover, and I. Humming along.