Boyfriends

I tried to retrace my last steps, frustrated at how I could lose something so important to me. Wasn't Colleen's new boyfriend just telling me yesterday I should be careful putting that ring on a necklace. Well, now I had gone and lost both.

Colleen had found herself a new Mr. Wonderful. I don't know how she does it so quickly. His name is Matt and he seems great. I told her, "If you don't want to keep him, I'll take him."

At that, she laughed and said, "You're always trying to keep my guys."

"How do you get such great ones?" I asked, wishing I had her talent.

She just smiled.

Besides being a formidable opponent in basketball, which was mine and Colleen's favorite sport, he also seemed to know more than we do about shopping. Well, jewelry shopping, I mean. He works as a jeweler in one of the stores in the mall, the one we always stop in so we can admire what we can't have. I never thought much about a career as a jeweler. In high school, I think the other kids would have said, "Huh, a jeweler?" if you confessed that's what you wanted to be. It's just not among the careers that your high school counselor suggests. Not that it is a bad career-I certainly was a bit jealous at the moment when he described his job to me.

"He went to school for it," Colleen said, hooking her arm through mine. "He sees and touches all the gems behind the jewelry cases."