She swoons.
They fell in love at a hot dog stand. It was late spring, still a bit of a nip to the air. Michael told the story of how his mother would bring them to this very hot dog stand at the beginning of each summer season.
She would get one hot dog with just a single line of mustard on it.
Maryanne couldn’t recall how his mother ate her hot dogs the rest of the year. Michael’s mother had passed long before Maryann met him.
Michael was romantic, but he wasn’t always sure how to deal with women. He had been raised with two older sisters and a doting, very feminine mother, but that only made him more confused.
Women were irrational in his experience. There was nothing you could do.
But, Maryanne was easy to swoon. She appreciated the things he did. He could make her smile through big alligator tears or giggle into stitches when she was mad as hell.
Michael lived to light up her life.
That was how he first knew. That day at the hot dog stand.
Maryanne’s eyes had been big and sad under her sunglasses. She was always moody back then, searching for something. Michael had no tolerance for that kind of thing. He felt it was his duty to break her from it — both by making her smile and making her dreams come true.
So little else did Michael remember about that day. Maryanne even less.
But they come back each year to have a hot dog at the beginning of the season. Michael tells the story of his mother and they fall in love all over again.
