The way it should be

Frank sat on the front porch enjoying a chilled mug of beer, with Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Dorsey and others serenading his evening through the living room window. In his mind, he was envisioning his last dance with the woman that his heart couldn't help but adore.

How they loved to dance. They would go every Saturday night to the local dance hall and spend it cheek to cheek and heart to heart. They fell in love to the music that Frank still had the ability to adore. It made him happy to listen to those lyrical strains, those melodies and to remember what it felt like to hold his love and twirl her around the dance floor.

She had been gone for many years now but it still felt like yesterday. She hadn't been sick for long. It was a very short road from her diagnosis to the day he lost her. With her last breaths, she told him she would adore him forever and he never forgot those words. That was probably why, in all this time, Frank had never joined the ranks of the town's dating men. He felt he would always and forever be bound to his lady.

It wasn't that he didn't have plenty of opportunity to date, most certainly. Frank was, unbeknownst to him, one of the town's most eligible widowers. Ladies would whisper when he passed them in the supermarket, tipping his hat like a true gentleman and bidding them a good day. Frank was well-mannered and well-kept but he simply could not imagine himself with someone new.

As he sat on his porch, a car pulled into the driveway. It was Lily, one of his and his late wife's friends from up the road. She was coming by with some fresh-picked vegetables from her garden. Frank was always appreciate of what she shared. She was such a kind soul. He stood to greet her and took the cloth bag of tomatoes, beans and cucumbers from her hand. Ever the gentleman, Frank offered Lily a cold drink and she was very pleased to accept.

Returning with her drink, Frank found Lily still standing on the porch, near to the windows, swaying back and forth to Old Blue Eyes. He could hear her singing softly to herself and she knew every word. As he approached her, his shoe scuffed the wooden porch and she turned to face him. "Such lovely music, Frank. My dear Stan and I used to dance to this song all the time. How I miss dancing," she sighed. Dancing? Frank invited Lily to sit and listen to more music and wondered, for the first time, if this life might grant us more than one dance partner.