Steve and Teresa....lucky in love!
Eric and I went on a double-date with our friends Steve and Teresa. Like us, Steve and Teresa have each been married before. They're good-looking, 40-something, professionals, with grown children, and an amazing home in Oregon City. On top of that...they are madly and truly in love with each other....yeah, it almost makes ya want to hate them, huh?
We met Steve and Teresa for dinner at SouthPark in downtown Portland. www.southparkseafood.com It's a favorite restaurant of all of ours. Dinner, as always, did not dissappoint. The guys had steaks, the girls, pasta and fish, all washed down with a lovely bottle of red wine that the waiter recommended.
What I like about Steve and Teresa is that they always seem to enjoy being in each other's company. Obviously they love each other, and better still, they are best friends. They seem to go together like milk and cookies. They admire and respect each other and are each other's biggest fans. You won't find petty rivalry or jealousy with them....just confident trust and admiration. Each of them is quick with a smile and they have a "glass half full" attitude that is contagious.
After dinner we had cocktails at Red Star, another favorite. While sipping our drinks I asked them how long they have been married now. Steve, with a big grin, and without hesitation says the years, months and days they have been husband and wife. They laugh and lightly kiss. (Another good thing about this couple, they're affectionate, but without any embarrassing tonsil-cleansing kisses in public). Teresa then says, "It's just luck".
According to Teresa, finding the perfect mate is a matter of luck. You can be physically attracted to someone, unable to resist their chemical calling card, but to actually then fall in love and have that person turn out to be your best friend to boot....well that's luck. Eventually the fire's heat lessens, and that is when many couples flounder. But, if that fire was started by someone who is your best friend....you have something even more amazing....a life-long companion. Someone who you never grow tired of being with. It's all a matter of luck, she says, and she and Steve, just happened to hit the jackpot.
I ponder her words. And I think back to what my mother told me after my second divorce. She, too, said finding the right one was a matter of luck. She said she got lucky by finding my dad the first time around....and, that eventually, I might too be lucky and find that perfect combination of lover and friend. Luckily, she was right. I found Eric.
