by Michael Cannata

Created on: January 20, 2012   Last Updated: April 07, 2012

Who was he kidding!? He looked at the new clothes with feelings of dread. He thought his wife loved him just the way he was. OK, maybe his belly danced a little longer than he did when he got off the dance floor. On those rare times he got out on the dance floor! But this was going too far!

He was sweating already and he had barely moved for 15 minutes. No matter how much he tried to avoid it, there was no way out of this. His wife had laid down the law. He could do what she told him or suffer the consequences. It was for his own good, she had pleaded. Damn her!

She was out there waiting for him to make his grand appearance. In front of a huge crowd of people he didn’t even know. He wasn’t big on making a fool out of himself and he had no doubt that he was going to look sillier than he’d looked in a very long time. If he didn’t love her so much he would file for a divorce tomorrow!

He had even gone so far as to threaten her with it. But by the time his wife and the kids stopped laughing it didn’t seem like an option they took seriously. There was a time that he could have made a new life for himself without her but that was long gone. His family was his world. When they started out his family needed him. Now it was he who needed them.

He started to get dressed and suddenly he felt a stirring, as though some long forgotten memory had been rekindled. He remembered all those times he had spent playing sports as a young man. He'd always loved basketball. The smell of a gym still made him want to get out on the court. Fortunately, the fear of keeling over, clutching his chest and gasping for breath usually brought him back to reality.

The reality was he could barely go up a flight of stairs without losing his breath. He considered his days of running and jumping far behind him. At 50 years old he knew that was a sad state for a man to be in. He laced up his new sneakers and stood up. Time to face the music, he thought to himself.

His wife had been a member of the workout facility for the last year. She had always kept herself in good shape. Seeing her now he realized how great she looked, even after all these years. He had to admit, over the last few months she had gotten even more beautiful than ever. She was always the prettiest girl in school. He had thanked god everyday for sending her to him. He never felt like he deserved someone so beautiful and caring. Didn’t she deserve to have the man she loved to be the best he could

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