He met her at a birthday party. She was so outstanding and easily the most beautiful girl in the room. All the guys wanted her and many of them talked to her. There he was wishing he could have her all to himself. The chances of that! He was so normal and nobody paid attention to him. He often wondered what it was exactly that women wanted so he could be that. 'Well, at least the beer is cold', he thought. Seven bottles of beer down the line, he was ready to talk to her so he stood up from the side-stool and staggered over to where she stood with her friend.
Was it someone's foot or something else that tripped him? He was too tipsy to know what happened but he tripped on something and came crashing down. Luckily or unluckily, she caught him. 'Hey, I'm so sorry. I was coming to talk to you', he blurted out.
'Well you're here', she said and smiled mildly. Both the beer and that smile encouraged his to speak up.
'Would you like to have coffee with me tomorrow? ' he said. Surprised, she seemed to consider that for a moment.
' Please', he added.
'Yes, I would love to'.
Well, that worked out well. Who would have thought that all I needed was some bottles of beer.
They sat in a nice coffee shop, he was too nervous to say anything and she felt uncomfortable. 'Please let me go', she thought. The waiter came over and he suddenly asked, 'Please may I have some salt?'
Google Image Silence. Both her and the waiter were staring at him.
' I'd like to put it in my coffee.'
Then everybody stared at him; so strange! His face turned red, but, still, he put the salt in his coffee and drank it. She asked him curiously: why salt? He replied: 'When I was a little boy, I lived near the sea with my parents. I liked playing in the salt water. And I remember the salty taste of the sea breeze. I guess I simply acquired the taste for sea salt and couldn't let it go. Now every time I have the salty coffee, I always think of my childhood, think of my home town, my home and my grandma and I miss my parents who are still living there. And it brings back such fond memories'. As he talked his eyes welled up with tears and his voice cracked. He held himself together but she was deeply touched by the story.
That's his true feeling, from the bottom of his heart, she thought. A man who can tell of his childhood with such nostalgia must have had a happy childhood and some good upbringing. He must be a loving person, a man who loves home, and cares about a family.
So she talked about her family too, spoke about her far away hometown, and her childhood. The date went better than either of them had thought possible. It was a really nice talk and also a beautiful beginning of their love story.
They continued to date. She found that actually he was a man who satisfies all she wanted in a man. Despite the initial impression he made that night, he was self-assured, intelligent, but also patient, tolerant, kind-hearted, and a very warm person. And to think that she almost missed him due to a self-consciousness that has all but disappeared and his salty coffee!
Theirs was a beautiful love story. The Prince meets the Princess, they marry and live happily ever after except that this is life and in life there is an end.
Google Image
Every time she made him coffee, she put some salt in it, as she knew that's the way he liked it. And recently, she had started liking salt in her coffee too. After 60 years, he passed away and left her a letter which read:
'My dearest. My beautiful Amy. The only possible love of my life. Ours has been one for the story books but I write this letter to ask your forgiveness. I have ever told you only one lie all my life. This was the only lie I said to you - the salted coffee. Remember the first time we had coffee? I was so nervous at that time, actually I wanted some sugar, but I said salt. You were so uncomfortable and the way you looked at me, it was hard for me to change so I just went ahead. There was a light in your eyes as I told you about the origin of the salted coffee that I would have given anything to keep it there.'
'I tried to tell you the truth many times in my life, but I was too afraid to do that. Now I'm leaving you and I do not want you to drink a salted coffee ever again. I am the happiest man alive to have been your husband. After the first few times, I stopped tasting the salt in the coffee and now I could not drink coffee with sugar in it because with you in my life, I could never be sugar-free'.
As she read the letter, the tears fell freely and made the letter wet.
She never stopped drinking coffee with salt though. One day her grandson asked her, 'Grandma, why do you drink coffee with a pinch of salt?'
Google Image
'Your granddaddy gave me all the sugar I will ever need. Without love, life is sugar-free'.
Thank you for reading