His ex-wife was so frigid that her clitoris was only the tip of the iceberg. He circled Love the way a gull who's never seen the ocean, circles the dump. He learned a valuable lesson: Desire dies. Then, without warning, passion struck. And it burned - hot and unquenchable as an oil well fire. It was magic. Then Betrayal. He learned a valuable lesson from this as well: Never want what appears to want you.

She was 31 and still believed in True Love, Love at First Sight, and that Hope Sprung Eternal. She also believed that one day there would be a Special Olympics of Love and that would be the day she finally medaled in the Game of Romance. She believed that all these things would one day come. But in the meantime she fucked younger men for exercise.

She appeared on his heartstep and beat on the door until he answered. He did his best to explain his Belief was extinct. She elbowed her way in, and beligerantly began to set up house. He protested. He put his foot down.

She countered him with an optimism that did not care what she cost him.

He wasn't looking, He kept telling her this. He repeated it endlessly, I wasn't looking. following her around as she hammered, poured cement and sawed away with a riteous determination.

He said to her,

"I wasn't looking. I didn't ask for this. Leave me Alone."

"Pah," she said around a mouthful of nails. "You called me like the wind. Of course I blew your house down. It's not my fault you built of straw last time. Now. Where's the drill?"

In the beginning, he wanted only to hold her and then run away. By the time she had raised the skeleton of the house, he wanted to hold her. But by the time she had laquered the doors, he wanted only to hold her and go home.

It was, a match made in Heaven.