It all started when I was 17 and madly in love with the boy next door, who was so flat-out sexy that just to look him in the eye felt, somehow, immoral. From the start, I could not get used to the fact that of all the girls that were throwing themselves at him, including the entire cheerleading squad, he wanted only me. Little did I know, that he had already worked his way through the entire team of pom-pom girls before I had moved in next door to him and his family.

Well, being the innocent girl that I was, and ferociously hell-bent to stay that way, there was no way on earth he was going to seduce me into his bed, no matter how much I was tempted to do so. So, after a few long months of getting nowhere with me, he finally gave up and moved on, later marrying the blonde down the street, whom he had gotten pregnant on the night of the senior prom.

Fast forward 44 years, and two failed marriages for him, plus one for me. We were both paying dues to the same online dating site, when our paths cross again. I was no longer the innocent flirt of four decades back, and he was no longer the babe magnet of that same period. We both recognized the other from our photos and profiles, but he was the one to take action. Next thing that happened was that we were making a date and catching up on the past 40 years over a very long candlelit dinner at the beach. By dessert, we were already convinced there was no more time to waste apart from each other. We’d already done that, after all. The following week we exchanged vows in that same candlelit restaurant, with the wholehearted approval of his three kids and my two, and not an ex-spouse in sight.