Tag Archives: Love

Citizen of Ville Joie – The show really must go on

16 Saturday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Daryl must do his radio show after Annie leaves him…

“I spent the rest of this evening sitting in the dark while having a few drinks to take the edge off before my show. Whenever my mind turns to Annie, it’s always her eyes I see first. I have looked at them so often and I can see them in my mind so vividly, it’s as though the rest of her is about to draw itself around them and she will be here with me again. I think about her, about the reason for which I seem to have lost her for good. Her image fades in and out between childhood memories flashing in a sequence starring fear, tears and broken bones. Why would anyone ever want to hear this, especially a beautiful human being such as Annie? I’m still trying. I’m still trying to find the words and I just can’t do it. Is it because it all happened half a lifetime ago and the words are buried too deep. Am I too lazy to dig them up. Am I just being a coward. I’m not even sure anymore what it is that’s making me so dizzy; is it the booze or all these questions spinning in my head.

I’m taking the thirty minutes walk to the station hoping the fresh air will do me some good and help me clear my mind. About halfway there I get an uneasy feeling after I realize that I am not prepared for tonight’s show. I walk straight ahead with a busy mind but unable to focus on anything specific; my show, Annie, my past, nothing sticks long enough for a thought to take shape. Then, the phone Annie insisted on buying me early in our relationship rings, which is unusual at this hour, especially on a weeknight. I frantically reach in my pocket hoping it’s a call from Annie but, no. It’s Susan, my technician, producer and trusted friend of eight years asking where I am in a tone that betrays her anxiety. It’s unlike me to show up at the last minute as I have always placed a great deal of importance on preparation but tonight, understandably, I lost track of time and I sense Susan is on the verge of migrating from anxious to outright panicked. There’s a lot of timing involved in what we do and everything has to be choreographed precisely, especially for a six hour show which is a rare thing in radio nowadays.

I pick up the pace and get to the station with only a few moments to spare. Susan has readied my studio as usual and all I have to do is sit in front of the microphone which I do, still wearing my jacket and still holding my phone. Susan is standing next to me and talking but I can’t really hear her, although I did get something about going on the air in two minutes. For a second there, I have no idea what I’m going to say and the on air light is about to go green. After all these years of endless talking, all these intros, the countless stories and commentaries and for the first time of my career I find myself drawing a blank.

But only for a second.

This microphone has become an extension of my body and the reflexes acquired over time are mixing with the adrenaline and kicking in.

I touch my finger to my phone to bring up Annie’s number and send her a text message. This will get her attention, first because she sleeps with her phone on her bedside table and second, because she knows I absolutely despise text messages. After typing the message “Listen to my show, please”, I touch the send button and then turn to Susan to worry her with a request.

“Get all the Cat Stevens songs you can find”.

When we first started working together, Susan kept scheduling Cat Stevens songs for our show and every time I would ask her to replace them with different ones. At first, she argued that hosting a show featuring music from the seventies and refusing to play at least a few of Cat Stevens’ biggest hits didn’t make any sense. I just told her I wasn’t a fan of his music and I didn’t feel his songs matched our format, which was ludicrous because it was a perfect fit. She tried to slip one on me every once in a while, but I always managed to get them off of our play list. After a while she just dropped the subject all together. So now, I have managed to shock her with my request.

“Cat Stevens? What? Why? You’ve always said no Cat St…”

Susan stops talking abruptly as she sees the look on my face. I look up over he shoulder to see the seconds hand on the clock of the studio racing toward the number twelve. Susan turns on her feet and leaves the studio to run to her booth. Even though I’m looking at her through dirty and tinted glass, I can see her nervousness and confusion. With about five seconds to go, what I am about to say is definitely not going to calm her down.

“And Susan, whatever happens, don’t cut me off the air”.

“What? Daryl! What the hell is wrong with you?”

At that same moment, the clock hits midnight and she has no other choice but to turn the microphone on because if she doesn’t, there will be dead air. In our business, silence screams incompetence. This would reflect badly on the both of us and she absolutely knows it. So almost immediately, the light goes green and my mic goes hot.

As I take off my jacket, I begin talking. On my way here tonight I had no clue what I was going to talk about. It’s strange how when the instincts take over, it all comes naturally. Either you have it or you don’t. I don’t know much in life but I know this; I have it.

“It is midnight so a great new day to all of you…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville Joie – Shutting the door

13 Wednesday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Annie left a note for Daryl before she left…

“I went to the station Sunday and Monday nights at around eleven and did my midnight show as usual, but the stories I had picked to share with my listeners seemed more somber, darker even. They had good, inspirational endings as usual but I guess it’s all in the delivery which in radio is a direct reflexion of your mood and there’s basically no way to hide from it. By this morning, after my show, I was a complete mess and I have absolutely no clue how to shake it off, having sunk deep in that intense feeling of loss which I am no longer equipped to deal with. The part of me which used to rise and sooth this kind of pain has been asleep for what seems a lifetime now. It rose too often and too soon in my life, I put it to rest by shielding myself over the years to make sure I would never have to call on it again.

After we started seeing each other, Annie stopped coming to work early at the station so we wouldn’t raise suspicions and avoid office gossips. This also means I haven’t seen her at work these last two days nor did I call her, in part because I wanted to respect her need for space but mostly, because I was afraid of tempting fate. I feel terrible enough as it is without going ahead and making a phone call with the potential of making me feel worse.

Annie came to see me after dinner. When I opened the door and I saw her, I was so overwhelmed that I smiled and went forward to take her in my arms. I stopped short when she took a step back and abruptly ordered me to go back in so we could talk. I walked back inside of my loft and turned around. Annie walked in but I was disappointed when I realized she had stopped by the door and didn’t seem to want to get comfortable and stay a little while.

“You could come in and sit down, you know” I said looking down.

“I’m perfectly fine where I am for now.”

The brief silence that followed was still long enough for me to realize that this wasn’t going in the right direction. Annie confirmed it and went straight to the point.

“Do you have anything to tell me?” she said in a voice not nearly as soft as its usual self.

“I missed you very much”. My heart accelerated in anticipation of her answer.

She raised her eye brows and said “That’s nice. It’s nice to know.” The tone in her voice left no doubt that she meant it, yet it was still firm. “But that’s not what I need to hear from you right now”.

There would be no way out of this, she wanted to know. I kept thinking I should just let it out, all at once and see what happens. I took a deep breath, opened my mouth and moved my head forward as if I was going to say something. Nothing but dead air came out. I stood there with my mouth half opened, completely frozen, unable to speak. That must have made me look quite unappealing as Annie stared at me, waiting to hear something, anything. After a short while, when she realized I couldn’t bring myself to talk, she turned around slowly, opened the door, walked a few steps and closed the door slowly, still staring at me. In a matter of just a few minutes, I went from the joy of being in Annie’s presence again to the pain of standing alone, with no relief in sight.

The first time I cried over a woman, I was about seven and had fallen in love with a twenty-one year old university student named Andrée. The second time was when Danielle died. And this evening, as Annie turned her back on me and I heard her footsteps getting further away from me in the hallway, I didn’t fight the tears. Annie has earned them…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville Joie – Annie’s note, reworked!

10 Sunday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Annie left a note for Daryl before she left…

Every onece in a while…you feel the need to “tweak”…!

“I had a drink to help me clear my mind of what had just happened and went to join her in bed less than an hour later, hoping she had calmed down. I wrapped my arm around her and since she said nothing, I figured the fight was over. She must have waited for me to fall asleep to write the letter, put it on the pillow next to me and leave. Annie had told me a few times that, as a publicity writer, she didn’t feel her creativity was quite challenged enough. She is actually very good with words and her note was quite the reminder of that.

“Daryl,

We have been good together from the very moment we met. For a while, I believed we could be even better. I believed we could be great. I believed we were worth this much. I believed. Before tonight.

I have given you many chances to explain, at your pace and in your own words, the reason behind these silences of yours. The fight we had earlier made it clear that my desire to know what makes you unavailable to me when I want to be with you the most, is secondary to your need to hide it from me. Beyond your words and their meaning, it was the gesture of trust and the closeness I was hoping it would bring to us that I was looking forward to. This isn’t me trying to steal your secrets. The memories and experiences of your past will always be yours, wether you accept to recite them out loud in my presence or you choose to let this obvious pain you carry inside of you, darken some of the most precious moments we could have together.

When we are alone Daryl, I can actually feel the sun rising on us as a promise of that greatness I so wanted for us. But every time you retreat behind this wall you have built between me and your memories, the shadow it casts on my heart chills my affection for you. I have always believed that, in order to know where we are supposed to go in life, we must first know and understand where we come from. I can’t see our future if I can’t see your past and I refuse to live dishonestly by pretending “it” does not exist.

So open up to me. Trust me. I assure you, no matter what it is you end up revealing to me and regardless of how sad or terrifying you may fear your words would be, nothing could ever change what I see when I look at you; a strong, beautiful man who lives his life with an almost perfect integrity, the value I cherish above all.

I will want these tears back.

I will see you in a few days when I am calm again,

Annie”…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen Of Ville Joie – Annie’s note to Daryl

09 Saturday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Annie left a note for Daryl before she left…

“I had a drink to help me clear my mind of what had just happened and went to join her in bed less than an hour later, hoping she had calmed down. I wrapped my arm around her and since she said nothing, I figured the fight was over. She must have waited for me to fall asleep to write the letter, put it on the pillow next to me and leave. Annie had told me a few times that, as a publicity writer, she didn’t feel her creativity was quite challenged enough. She is actually very good with words and her note was quite the reminder of that.

“Daryl,

We have been good together from the very moment we met. For a while, I believed we could be even better. I believed we could be great. I believed we were worth this much. I believed. Before tonight.

I have given you many chances to explain, at your pace and in your own words, the reason behind these silences of yours. I need to know what makes you unavailable to me when I want to be with you the most. It seems the closer I want to get to you, the greater the distance you put between us. This isn’t me trying to steal your secrets. The memories and experiences of your past will always be yours, wether you accept to recite them out loud in my presence or you let this obvious pain that you feel darken some of the most precious moments we could have together.

When we are alone Daryl, I can actually feel the sun rising on us as a promise of that greatness I so wanted for us, but every time you retreat behind this wall you have built between me and your memories, the shadow it casts on my heart chills my affection for you. I have always believed that, in order to know where we are supposed to go in life, we must first know and understand where we come from. I can’t see our future if I can’t see your past and I refuse to live dishonestly by pretending “it” does not exist.

So open up to me. Trust me. I assure you, no matter what it is you reveal to me and regardless of how sad or terrifying you may feel your words would be, nothing could ever change what I see when I look at you; a strong, beautiful man who lives his life with an almost perfect integrity, the value I cherish above all.

I will want these tears back.

I will see you in a few days when I am calm again,

Annie”…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville Joie – Stealing memories

08 Friday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Annie leaves…

“This last Saturday night, I had one of those moments where I completely disappeared inside of my own mind. We were watching a movie from which a scene triggered an intense reflexion on some memories. In the scene from the movie, a young boy had to move away from his neighborhood with his family and was saying goodbye to his best friend, another boy he had known his whole life. Although I’m not usually one to get overly emotional watching movies, this particular scene ignited something in me thanks to the little buggers cast to play those boys who were very good actors. I moved my head to the right and became completely oblivious to my surroundings as I revisited the many emotional moments in my distant past where I had to say goodbye to people I loved. Annie was lying on the couch with her head on my lap and she noticed I wasn’t watching the movie anymore so she paused it and observed me for a while. She broke the silence to ask me the question that launched our biggest argument to date, an argument at the very beginning of which I did the unthinkable and raised my voice at her for the first time in our relationship. This and my answer tipped her over the edge.

“Enough with this curiosity of yours about my damn past. For God sakes, leave it the hell alone already” I said in an exasperated tone.

Annie goes the other way when she gets mad. She keeps a normal tone of voice and measures every words she says. It’s quite something to experience really; instead of chasing you around with loud words, she’ll corner you with good ones. She does, however, get physically agitated and compulsively moves furniture around.

“If you told me once and for all what’s in that mysterious mind of yours perhaps I could understand you a little better. Then maybe, just maybe, I’d leave it the hell alone as you say” she said while moving the big chair in the living room. That chair is heavy even for me, but she lifted it and moved it about six feet to the left as easily as if she had moved a box of tissues.

“But no, not you. Not you, mister big shot radio host. You talk to your listeners, complete strangers might I add and spend the entire night reading meaningful stories to them about wonderful people who have breakthrough moments. People with good endings to bad stories.”

This time she went for the coffee table. Up it went and landed right in front of the big chair where it actually belongs.

“But can you say something meaningful or deep about yourself to me? Of course not, you only talk to people you can’t see and about people you don’t know. Safer this way, isn’t it?”

She walked to the bathroom to put on some hand lotion, came back in the living room and looked at me for a full minute while she rubbed her hands together and caught her breath.

“Where did you grow up Daryl?”

“Do you have any brothers or sisters Daryl?”

“Did you have any friends when you were a child Daryl?”

“Where did you go to school Daryl?”

“What is your mother’s name Daryl?”

Annie paused after each question and waited for a reaction from me. I just kept looking to my right as she stood and stared at me. Her breathing began to slow down and after a little while, she kneeled in front of me and put her hands over mine.

“I have cared about you from day one and soon after I began to love you. But you have to accept that I need to know you more in order to love you more” she said with a cracking voice before leaving for the bedroom.

I had a drink to help me clear my mind of what had just happened and went to join her in bed less than an hour later, hoping she had calmed down. I wrapped my arm around her and since she said nothing, I figured the fight was over. She must have waited for me to fall asleep to write the letter, put it on the pillow next to me and leave.

Annie had told me a few times that, as a publicity writer, she didn’t feel her creativity was quite challenged enough. She is actually very good with words and her note was quite the reminder of that…”

Don’t miss the next excerpt. It will be Annie’s note to Daryl…

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville Joie – The Sunday rest

06 Wednesday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Daryl explains what drove Annie away…

“I knew our long Sunday morning breakfast together was her favorite time of the week, so for Annie to chose and forgo that special day together meant something serious was happening.

It had become a tradition since the first morning we woke up together and that we perfected over time. We would force ourselves out of bed very early and walk together to “our bakery” down the street to buy freshly baked bread and pastries. I offered many times to go by myself so she could sleep a few more minutes, but she insisted on coming with me just so she could admire the pastries and agonize over the selection. We would then rush back to my place and put our pj’s back on. Annie would set the warm bread and pastries on the table by the window that gave us an unobstructed view of the street while I prepared a fresh pot of what Annie called the best coffee in the world. She loved the food because it tasted good, I loved the simplicity because it felt warm.

We sat facing each other and looked through the window as the city and some of its characters paraded in front of us and in some unfortunate cases, for us. Now that was my favorite part. I would make Annie laugh by commenting inappropriately on people going about their business on the sidewalk. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything mean about them but, she enjoyed every moment of me going at them from all angles even if afterwards she always felt guilty about having had some fun at the expense of my unsuspecting victims.

Once, a heavy set man happened to be walking right in the middle of our view where he stopped, turned his back on us and, just as Annie was taking a sip, pulled up his pants that had fallen half-way down his oversized rear end. “Great” I said in a sarcastic tone. “More hot buns!” She laughed so hard I ended up wearing her coffee.

Since I was due back on the air at midnight, I would take a long nap in the afternoon with Annie lying-down next to me as she read a book. It was a peaceful day, selfishly spent by ourselves. It was important to her that we spent this quality time together and to be honest, I didn’t mind it at all. Saturdays were dedicated to chores and shopping for dinner together, on the odd chance we didn’t have to attend a promotional event or a benefit sponsored by the radio station. The rest of the week usually flew by because of work but we saw each other as often as we could in the evenings and managed to make the best of it by going to the movies, trying out new restaurants or satisfying her passion for sweets by visiting different bakeries, all before I went to work.

This last Saturday night, I had one of those moments where I completely disappeared inside of my own mind. We were…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville Joie – The price of silence

04 Monday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Daryl explains what drove Annie away…

“That is when she chose to ask for the first time specifically where had I grown up. I told her I just wanted to enjoy the present moment and redirected the conversation back to her.

As time passed and with each moment of silence that struck in her presence, I ran out of ways to avoid the subject, so my only response became to gradually shut Annie down. Not out of malice or by choice; this retreat in silence was a reflex, a destructive one I realize that now, but a reflex nonetheless, one that can strike without prompting. I get overwhelmed, stare straight ahead and disappear the world around me while some of my memories come back to life so vividly, I can see the faces and hear the voices of those from my past as if they were right in front of me. I can smell the rooms and taste the food. It is so real, I can feel the pain and the sadness all over again. Annie once told me she knew my long silences were filled with images from my youth because I looked as though I was watching a movie. She said she wanted nothing more than to see it too. I just faked a smile and found a reason to leave the room.

One might be tempted to believe that, since it was my past and since Annie was so thoughtful and sensitive, she should have left it alone like I wanted. I foolishly thought so too until just a few days ago. Annie it turns out, is too deep, too whole a person to accept being with a man who refuses to talk about an extended period of his life, who disappears in his own head before her eyes and not be able to ask why. God knows she tried to go along with it and did everything she could to be understanding but, as her feelings for me grew stronger so did her need to know and so did her frustration with my refusal to share. By the time she had reached her limit, my silence had become nothing less than an insult to everything good that she is. It all came crashing down a few days ago when we had a bitter argument just before we went to bed Saturday night and I woke up on Sunday morning to see, resting on her pillow instead of her beautiful face, an envelope with my name on it.

I knew our long Sunday morning breakfast together was her favorite time of the week. It had become a weekly tradition since…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville Joie – Cooking for Annie

02 Saturday Jun 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. In this excerpt, Daryl invites Annie to his place for dinner…

“We went out on the traditional three dates before anything intimate happened. Three dates is usually enough time spent together to know there is something to explore and, for those blessed with an intelligence at least above that of a fern, short enough a time to avoid saying or doing anything that could ruin the evening faster than she can say “Check, please”. Women can be as perceptive as they can be unpredictable. One insensitive word, one unfortunate wise crack or even a seemingly innocent phrase blurred out in the wrong tone could send you home alone after getting a very cold handshake from a woman thanking you for a “very friendly time” when only a few moments earlier, you were mentally padding yourself on the back for having changed the bedsheets that very morning.

Luckily, I was able to walk unharmed the mine field that are the initial dates and the first night Annie and I spent together was nothing short of magic.

I had invited her at my place for dinner so I could try and impress her with my cooking skills. I planned the menu ahead of time and to test the old saying that practice makes perfect, I cooked that same meal three times earlier the week to make sure it wasn’t a fiasco on the Saturday. By the time we sat down for dinner, or my fourth serving of the exact same meal in less than a week, the food was unbelievably good for her but I had to concentrate real hard not to gag at each bite. I knew how crucial the dessert course would be to my guest, so I opted to turn to the professionals and picked up a cake I had ordered from the nearby bakery, soon to become “our bakery”. She found the whole thing hilarious, but later told me she was deeply touched my thoughtfulness.
The setting was perfect. There was no pressure coming either from outside or from us, we were alone in quiet environment and we both genuinely wanted to be there. Even my worries about the fact that I was twelve years older than she was were put to rest. When I asked her how she felt about my age, her answer was “Why? Are you a cheese?”

It seemed as though it happened by itself, naturally. Annie was holding back just enough to keep me wanting more, but not so much as to make me doubt she was enjoying the moment. We found our rhythm almost immediately and I got truly lost in her eyes for the first time as we stared at each other not only the entire time we made love but also after when we laid on our sides, facing each other, whispering, because talking normally would have been inappropriate in the circumstances. That is when she chose to ask for the first time specifically where had I grown up. I told her I just wanted to enjoy the present moment and redirected the conversation back to her.

As time passed, I ran out of ways to avoid the subject, so my only response became to gradually shut down all of those around me, Annie included…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville Joie – Surrendering to her voice

30 Wednesday May 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. Daryl describes his first date with Annie…

“I was quite flattered when only a few weeks into our morning ritual, she was the one who moved us forward and suggested we went out for coffee, as she put it “somewhere nice and at night”, instead of “at work and so early in the morning”. I was mildly hesitant and wondered, albeit only for a second or two, if it was the right thing to do given how nice she was and, well, how I was who I was. My desire for more of her overwhelmed me and we set a date for the following Saturday night.

I was at least wise enough to know that Annie wasn’t the kind of woman to go to bed with a man on the first date, so I showed up relaxed, with no agenda and thanks to that clear mindset, two things were quickly revealed that night. First, I really did like her and second, she really did like cake. I stared at her for what seemed forever and listened to every word she was skillfully able to pronounce between two bites of that giant piece of double chocolate cake she had ordered. She spoke for hours about work, family, favorite foods, movies, songs and I got most of it. I have to admit, at that moment I was more focused on the depth of her eyes and on the sweet sound of her voice.

At the beginning of that first date, I had to beat down the part of my conscience trying to rise and remind me that Annie was too special for me and by the time my lips touched her cheek when we said goodbye later that night, I had already chosen to surrender all I could to her…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad

Citizen of Ville-Joie – Words from a peaceful voice

28 Monday May 2012

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Please read “About this project and the Author” for more information on my project. Daryl describes Annie…

“Anyway, back to Annie. She would come in to work very early, which I assumed at the time was because she wanted to see the guys from the morning show, the real stars of the station. It turned out that Annie had been a longtime listener of mine and came in to work much earlier than her scheduled hours because she wanted to see what I was like in person. Early in the course of our conversations, which began on her third day, I noticed the way she was looking me. Some looks aren’t meant to be friendly. We always talked while pouring cream and sugar, in her case a ridiculous amount of sugar, in our coffees in the employees lounge. As the days passed, I found myself looking forward to the end of my production meeting so I could rush to the lounge and be with her. It started with small talk but pretty soon we were standing by the coffee machine for extended periods which inevitably made one cup of coffee grow into two, then three. I would go home to get some sleep afterwards but stayed wide awake for hours high on caffeine.

Thanks to our conversations, I learned that she grew up with three brothers and never really knew her father. She lives for cake and pastries, which you’d never know by looking at her body. I was delighted when I discovered she hated reality TV just as much as I did and thanks to her older brothers, loved seventies and eighties music. These conversations lasted for about a week when one morning, out of the blue and in a faked serious tone said “Annie, I think it’s time we moved this relationship to the next level”. She seemed puzzled and hesitantly let out an extended “Ok” with a slight frown. “Yes. You and I have been standing by the coffee machine for our little chats long enough now and I think we’re beyond that. She clued in and began playing along “Really? You think so?” “Absolutely”, I said. “I think this thing between us is serious enough to sit at a table from now on. Plus this coffee machine has heard everything we’ve said to each other so far and it has been known to spill the beans around here.” She laughed and answered “Well, I guess that’s where we are.” On our way to a table at the back of the longe, she floored me with her next line. “But I hope you have protection, because God only knows how many people you’ve sat with at tables before me”.

What seemed to be a playful back and forth between us at the time, was a real step forward in our relationship because our words were more meaningful from that point on. Although, I would always be careful to keep the conversation focused on her and as much as possible about the present or at the most, about a fairly recent past.

Annie has a very soft voice and when she speaks to you, no matter where you are, she can make time stop and everybody else around disappear. I had conversations with women before but it seemed there was always an angle to it, a little something expected in return. It was selfish, either on their part or mine. With Annie when we talked, I was actually receiving her words, processing them and I couldn’t help how good the sound of her voice made me feel. It was filled with peace, with kindness. This, later in our relationship, I got to tell her and when I did, she was so touched her eyes filled with tears. Seeing that moment, is seeing Annie…”

Do not reproduce or copy the content of this post as it is the sole property of citizenofvillejoie.com
Contact: steve.marchand@rogers.com

This project is entirely written on an iPad