Alfredo De Los Flores - 1966 - 1970-something

I think I've been desperate for a boyfriend since my girl hormones kicked in. Luckily, in sixth grade, there was Al.

Al was thin, pale, and freckled, with phenomenal eyelashes and ice-blue eyes. His dark hair was cut in bangs across the front, short on the sides. He walked in a rolling kind of bounce. Everything about Al seemed happy.

Everyone knew, though, as everyone knows these things, that his older brother Kenny had gone to war and come back Troubled. There was mention of a metal plate in Kenny's head. At 20-something, Kenny's occupation was to walk the road of Chesterfield County and make sure he got back home before dark.

We were friends throughout junior high and then high school. There was never anything romantic between us at all. I knew down deep that he was a good friend and he would likely go on being a good man for the rest of his life.

But I still didn't want to get involved with a family where anyone had a plate in his head. I already had too much trouble on the family front without getting into anyone else's.

Al and I had sixth period study hall together and usually, we ate lunch at the same table. By senior year, a girl, Mallorie, appeared on the periphery of our vision. She had the laser-eye for Al. She looked at me as if I were poison, which I thought mildly amusing and would frequently reach for Al's hand if Mallorie was sitting at our table.

One day when Mallorie was out, I said, "Mallorie really wants to date you."

"I know," he said.

"So why don't you?"

Al shrugged, but it wasn't too much later that they started dating. Not long after college, I found that Mallorie had reeled him in. Al was likely more than glad to get reeled in. He was pretty much happy wherever you put him.

He liked working at the soda fountain at the local drug store, but it wasn't long before Mallorie had him pointed in some direction.

I admired her. I knew she would have the force of will to push him into something that he would like doing and would be successful at.

Today, I googled them. They're still together. And Al now runs a chain of flower shops. He is apparently one of those chi-chi sought-after florists that society types fling themselves at. He is now guest lecturer at a number of significant industry events and historical gardens. I am so proud of him and so happy for him.

I can see him happily up to his elbows in artemesias and gerberas and roses of all hues. I can see him speaking passionately about design.

I can see Mallorie sitting on bridezillas. It all works. It's apparently still working. And I am so, so happy for Alfredo De Los Flores. He was my boyfriend, you know.