Last night for a few minutes I had a flash of something I haven’t felt in a long time. I felt homesick. I think it was for dave. I pushed it away real fast and wondered where it came from. I started thinking about our past.

Did I tell you that dave was married before? I guess not.

I met dave in 1966 on a student tour of Europe. He was the leader of the band that played on the ship over and back.

I didn’t date him. I was way more interested in the drummer.

Dave and I did become fast friends.
 We spent the whole trip laughing.

When we landed in Europe he and the rest of the band would be there waiting when my tour group arrived at certain cities and I spent my time with them rather than my tour group.

After the trip dave and I kept in touch.

In 1970 he started working for James Brown as his arranger and bandleader.

He never came to New York without seeing me. In fact when he moved to New York with his first wife they lived with me until they found an apartment.

dave and I were not at all romantic with each other. In fact once when he was  leaving for Europe and had some time to kill, I picked him up and brought him to my boyfriend Jerry’s house because it was near Kennedy airport.

Still when he called me and told me he had gotten married I felt a twinge.

I can’t say I really liked Weezie, his wife, not for any real reason but I found it annoying that she was the only one to keep in touch with me.

Now I see that it was completely natural. Who wants their husband calling a close woman friend? Of course she would be the one to keep in touch but I felt that he was my friend not her and I resented having to talk to her.

We eventually lost touch.

I didn’t hear from dave for a few years until I got a call from him out of the blue.

It seems that Weezie had left him and he was pretty sad. We saw each other a few times after that but again lost touch.

About a year later he called me and we started our friendship again.

He said he had been dating. He had tried hookers but it was too lonely. He said he wanted someone he could kiss.

We kept seeing each other strictly as friends when one day in conversation I asked him how he acted on a date he said “Pretty much the way I’m acting now”

Then he let me know that he wanted to change our relationship.

I didn’t know what to say.

He told me that he would wait to hear from me but if I called him it would be because I was willing to enter into a relationship with him.

A week or two passed and I called him.  I made excuses to myself that I was just calling to see him as a friend.

We went out that night and he never left again. That is until a year ago.