A Chance for Romance

“Ugh, I just don’t get it!” Billy grumbled, slamming the door on his way inside. He looked at the flowers and candy in his hands, then tossed them aside in disgust. He stomped through the house, ending up in the kitchen, where he rummaged aimlessly through the fridge. “Grand gestures, flowers, chocolate, I mean I’m not ugly. Why is it I can’t get a date? What do girls want? Man!” He slammed the fridge door in frustration.
   
       “Did the freezer do something offensive?”
    
      Billy turned and saw his grandfather watching him, and he flushed slightly, embarrassed.
     
     “Sorry Grampa. Just school stuff,” he apologized. 
     
     “You tried to give the school flowers?” His grandfather looked in the front hall, amusement in his tone. “Why don’t you tell me about it? Unless you’re too ‘cool’ to discuss things with an old man now.”
     
     “Well, no, I just…,” Billy sighed and sat down with his grandfather. “Homecoming is next week, and I can’t get a date. I’ve tried everything! I work out, I bring them flowers, I’ve blown two paychecks on candies alone! And all I get is shot down! It’s been four times this week! I don’t get it. What am I missing?”
     
     “Gosh, flowers and candles not bagging them like they used to eh?” Grampa chuckled. “Tell me, have you tried clubbing one over the head yet?”
    
      “Cute Grampa,” Billy glowered at him. “I don’t know how to get a girl to like me, and you’re over here making jokes. Thanks.”
    
      “The biggest jokes are your attempts at courting a girl,” the older man shot back, but the smile on his face took the sting from the words. “Did it ever occur to you to try, oh say, a little romance?”
     “Poems and mush and all that?” Billy snickered. “Your age is showing old timer. Nobody does that stuff anymore.”
     
     His grandfather regarded the young man quietly for a moment, then rose and grabbed his coat, motioning for the teen to follow him. Rolling his eyes, Billy nevertheless rose and followed the older man as he walked out of the house. They walked for a time in silence, until they reached the lake. It was a busy day there, with people lining the shore for miles. Still his grandfather walked, stopping a few feet away from a young man and woman. 
     
     “Tell me Billy, what do you see?” He asked.
     
     “A guy obviously trying to impress a girl with a lake day,” the teen shrugged. “Too bad that backfired, since literally the whole town had the same idea.”
     
     “Yes, they did, didn’t they? But look. A lakeside full of people, and he still managed to find a place just for the two of them.” His grandfather pointed. “Plenty of fine, young, scantily clad ladies around, and he only has eyes for her. He hasn’t looked away from her for longer than ten seconds.”
     
     “I don’t get your point,” Billy admitted, and his grandfather shook his head before looking his grandson directly in the eyes. 
     
     “Romance isn’t just poems and sonnets and ‘mush’, as you call it,” he explained. “It’s about establishing a connection, a true bond, with someone special to you. There are dozens of girls at this lake but in his eyes, she’s the only one that exists. And she knows it. Why do you think she’s here with him? There are plenty of better looking guys out on the water. Why does she stay here with him?” He looked out across the water. “He makes her feel special, that’s why. I brought your granny here on our first date, and it was just like this. Only that’s not what I really remember. I do remember the way her perfume blended with the breeze, a scent subtle and strong, just like her. I remember the exact moment her hand touched mine, and the lightning that ran through my body when she did. I remember the way the rest of the world became just noise, fading into silence, muffled by the depths of her eyes, orbs bluer than the waters of that lake. Eyes she passed on to you, Billy.”
     
     Billy didn’t say anything. His grandfather rarely spoke about his grandmother these days, and he had the very distinct idea that he should listen. 
     
     “Anyway, I think those two will be just fine,” Grampa smiled. “Come along. Let’s give them their privacy.”
     
     They walked for a while, until they came to a park with some benches overlooking the water. They sat for a moment and looked out at the boats sailing in the distance. 
     
     “Your granny, she was a tough nut crack back in those days,” Grampa said suddenly. “She knew her value, yes she did. I had to work for every kiss, every stolen moment. She wasn’t some gal who was gonna swoon over some flowers, that’s for sure. But she was worth the effort. That’s the next thing you should know about impressing a lady, my boy. It takes effort, and thought, and if you do it right, the hard work is rewarded by the sight of her smile, the warmth that spreads through your body when she’s genuinely pleased with a thoughtful gift, the knowledge that you made the most important woman in the world happy. And if you do it enough, when you bring her to a special spot by the lake overlooking the water and ask her to marry you, she’ll say yes.”
     
     It was a roundabout way of making a point, but Billy was beginning to understand. His grandfather was walking him through his courtship with his grandmother, and it made his own attempts, with cheap flowers and gaudy candies from the closest convenience stores seem pretty pitiful. His grandfather noticed his embarrassment and just smiled, before motioning for them to be off again. They walked for some time, and soon the sun began to set. They stopped on the far shore of the lake, and neither said a word for a long while.
     
     “The last thing to know about romance, Billy, about forging that special connection with someone. is that you never stop, not with the right person,” Grampa said into the silence. “You never stop searching for that smile, her laugh never stops delighting you, and the world never stops fading away when you get lost in her eyes. It isn’t about getting something for yourself, like a kiss or a date. It’s about showing the other person that you know what they’re worth, what they mean to you, and that you’ll never forget it. Not when you’re married with three rambunctious youngsters in a tiny apartment and the rent’s overdue. Not when you lose time together to pick up those extra shifts to put your kids through school. Not when age sets in, and their hair turns grey, and the aches and pains get a little worse. It’s about reminding that person that you love them and always will, even when those aches and pains become a little more serious, and you’re driving to the doctor more often than you used to.” He turned then to look directly at his grandson with a gaze that Billy couldn’t look away from. 
     
     “Romance, some effort, and a great deal of luck, can become love,” he said, speaking quietly, but Billy heard each word clearly. “Love becomes a life together, and it never goes away. Not when the doctors can’t help the pains anymore, not when those pains cripple that beautiful woman and she can’t do as much as she used to. It stays with you when that forever you promised her suddenly comes to a close, and it stays with you when you’re standing at the far side of the lake with an urn in your hands, trying to figure out how to say goodbye. And then, right then, love will remind you that there is no goodbye. Even when the ashes are spread and the years roll on, love lives on in the memories she gave you, in the thousand of little touches she left on your life, in the learning moments where you stand where you said farewell to your loved one with your grandson and hoping he finds the same kind of happiness you did. Don’t trivialize it Billy, because finding a date to a dance is just the beginning. The ultimate goal is to find a partner for life and never let her go, and that deserves a little more consideration than four attempted dance proposals and two lost paychecks. Do you understand?”
     
     Billy nodded, unable to speak past the lump in his throat, and his grandfather smiled warmly at him and gave his shoulder and affectionate squeeze.
     
     “Good boy,” he said, turning for a last look at the lake. “Now come on, let’s go home, and I’ll teach you how to make your granny’s chili.” And together they walked off into the growing twilight.