His children had just given him leave to find himself a girlfriend after two years of widowerhood and he didn't have the slightest idea what to do. Shane stood in the supermarket absentmindedly looking over the breakfast cereals recalling perfectly his two kids' supposedly encouraging words.
"Mom wouldn't want you to sit around moping for the rest of your life," Willie had sternly said the night before at dinner. "You gotta get out there, Dad, and meet women. Just watch out for the dinner-whores. They'd love to get a hold of a clueless guy like you."
"You're a very nice looking man, Daddy, and some nice woman out there will love to hear your stupid jokes and even laugh at some of them," Valerie had said smiling encouragingly.
Good to know they had some confidence in him as he had none himself. He hadn't gone out specifically to meet women since... well, hell's bells! He'd never really, come to think of it. He met Jaime in college and that was it. She was it, all he ever wanted. Barely a year later they were married. What did he have to meet women for after that?
"Excuse me, you're tall," a gentle voice spoke from beside him, abruptly pulling him out of his thoughts.
He turned and gaped. There stood a perfectly lovely lady and she was smiling at him. He fleetingly wondered why she would be doing such a thing and why she felt the need to state the obvious about his superior height. He noticed she was rather small, but nicely so. The kind of small that made a man feel protective and virile.
"Would you mind getting that big box of corn flakes down for me? If I try I'll knock down four. I always do," she said conspiratorially.
"Uh... okay," he said and easily reached it. He handed it to her and she smiled again. Boy, did she have a nice smile and a nice face to match. Her eyes were a soft brown with speckles of grey. "Very nice," he muttered, unknowingly aloud.
"What is? The corn flakes?" she asked shrugging carelessly. "I could never stomach cold cereals."
"Then what do you like for breakfast?" he asked before he could stop himself.
She giggled. "You're not suppose to ask that until after the third date. It's a steadfast rule," she said coyly.
"Really? What kind of stupid thing is that?"he asked indignantly. "Why are there rules about that?"
She laughed again. "I like a bagel with cream cheese, butter if I have to, honey wheat usually or cinnamon-raisin but a blueberry muffin will do in a pinch if I can't find a decent bagel."
"I love bagels," he replied eagerly. "I should get some. The kids would love that."
"Oh, you have kids, too?" she said smiling wistfully.
"Two, boy 15 and girl 13 but lately I'm wondering who's the parent and who's the kid," he said suddenly frowning. " They make me feel like I'm ten. Ever since my wife died they keep telling me what to do. Do your kids do that?"he asked seriously.
She laughed again and he wondered if that was what Valerie had meant about women liking stupid jokes. Though, if truth be told, he didn't think he had said anything remotely funny.
"Kids do what they can get away with. Perhaps your kids see you as not moving forward and they think they should push you. It's like when we push our kids to do sports until they decide they just don't like it. Then you just gotta stop pushing,"she replied knowledgeably.
"You sound like you know kids. How many you have?"he asked eagerly.
"Three, 10, 12 and 14 but they don't tell me what to do. They know better. They can get away with that with their father but not me," she replied sternly.
He smiled. "Good to know I'm not the only wimpy father around," he said brightly but his smile faded slowly. In a sad voice he added, "That's what I miss most about Jaime. She was such a good mom and I stink. I turned all our white t-shirts pink the other day and now Valerie won't let me do the laundry anymore."
The woman laughed so hard she doubled over and clutched at his arm to keep standing. "Good thing, isn't it? Now you have one less chore to do," she said happily.
He stared at her. "I never thought of it that way. You're right," he said excitedly. "So, if I burn the mac and cheese tonight do you think Willie will start cooking for me?"
She nodded as she laughed.
"Cool!"he said brightly then turned back towards the cereals. He looked at the zillions in front of him, shrugged and grabbed the corn flakes just like the lady got. "Maybe I should just follow you around the store and get whatever you get. You know better than me."
She laughed again. "I don't mind," she said then held her hand out. "My name is Epiphany."
"Epiphany? Boy, you must have had some childhood with a name like that. Kids must have teased you all the time," he said looking horror-struck.
She laughed. "You have no idea. That's why I gave my kids normal names like Laura, Andy and Sally. Kids can be cruel," she said bracingly.
"But it's a real nice name for an adult, different, you know? No one would ever forget your name Epiphany, it means sudden inspiration or something, doesn't it? Real nice," he said thoughtfully.
She smiled still holding out her hand. "Thank you...uh... you didn't tell me your name."
"Oh, I'm Shane," he said, suddenly seeing her hand and grasping it. "It's nice meeting you, Epiphany."
"Very nice meeting you, Shane."
He stared at her incredulously. It only just occurred to him he had just met a woman. Hell's bells, how had he managed that without knowing it, without actively seeking it? It wasn't so tough, meeting women. Not nearly as tough as he thought it would be. Surely that meant he wasn't totally clueless. Of course, she might not count as she had a husband. But at least he'd had some practice and did all right. Yes, he was quite happy with this new development.
"What's so funny?" she asked curiously watching him.
He grinned sheepishly. "My kids think I'm lonely. Just last night they gave me instructions to go out and meet women. They'll be shocked to hear I did it so soon. I won't tell them the part about you being married. They'll say it didn't count. They'll just call me an idiot or something," he said ruefully.
She laughed but sobered quickly. "I'm not married, Shane. Divorced, so I think I do count," she retorted seriously, an expectant expression on her pretty face.
He blinked and his heart stopped. Now what? He didn't know how to proceed from here. He had been concentrating only on meeting women. So what do you do once you meet them? Think, think, you moron!
"How long you been divorced?" he said before he could stop himself.
"Few years. How long have you been widowed?"
"Little over two years," he replied, only then realizing he still clutched her soft, small hand in his large, rough one. He stared at it a minute before reluctantly releasing it.
"Ready yet?" she asked.
"For what?"he asked completely confused.
She grinned. "To date, to move on. Isn't that why your kids wanted you to go out and meet women? Wasn't that the point of it all?"
Was it? He wasn't exactly sure what the kids had in mind. Did they want him to get a new mother for them or just to go out and... what? Get out of their hair? Probably, they would like that. Did they expect him to have "fun"? They couldn't want that. They knew he wasn't into that kind of "fun" not without Jaime, anyway. But that was it, wasn't it? He no longer had Jaime for fun or for anything. They wanted him to get a replacement, someone to be with, someone to love maybe.
He stared at this lady he had only just met. Could he eventually fall in love with her? Could she ever love him? He could imagine it but then he had a good imagination. Jaime had always told him that. Epiphany. Was she sudden insight, a moment of clarity for him? Sure seemed like it.
"Shane, are you all right?" she asked, watching him now with concern.
"I... I will be if.... would you like to go somewhere? With me I mean... like a date. Uh, maybe... uh, movies or... something,"he said lamely. Where do adults go out on dates anymore? Heck if he knew.
She smiled. "That would be nice. How about dinner Friday night?"
He watched in fascination as she pulled out a card and handed it to him. Epiphany Cline, it read, marriage counselor. He gaped at it for a minute. "Shouldn't you have listened to your own advice?" he said before he could stop himself. He grimaced. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean..."
"No worries. I did follow my own advice but my ex didn't cooperate. He didn't stop meeting women and doing a heck of a lot more with them after he met them," she replied steadily.
Shane grimaced even more. "Ouch! How could he....? I would never do that. I'm a one woman man. Always have been,"he said earnestly.
She smiled. "Well, then, we'll get along just fine."
He grinned, joy bubbling up in him. He had done it. He had met a woman, a nice one too by all accounts. And perhaps, if all goes well, he need never go out meeting women ever again. That was his hope anyway.