We could hold hands

Craig and his friends from that place "down there" had come to my work. (I work in a restaurant, so this was nothing unusual.) I went over to visit with some trepidation. It was just a few months after he had lost his hand and I wasn't sure how he was coping. Craig and Jacey told me of their plan to get the band back together for dinner with Mrs. Leyva. Kind of a more intimate high school reunion. He told me to bring whoever I was dating. I laughed and informed him you had to be dating someone to bring them along. Well, I was certainly not one to let the opportune moment of asking him who he was dating pass by, there was at least one girl sitting at the table with rapt attention on Craig. (Yes all who know him know that girls, and I really do mean several, follow him around waiting for him to utter those three little words.) He let it be known that he would going single also. Then came his great idea, we could go together, we could even hold hands but he only had one if that was okay. At that point I knew he was not just okay with losing his hand but that he was still himself. He hadn't become bitter. And we really did hold hands. A few weeks later the bands table was called, we held hands to the table, he even pulled out my chair, but he didn't buy dinner.

--