“WAAA-ZUP?”

—“What’s up?” asked my aquacise-instructor as I peeked one last time into Canandaigua’s YMCA swimming-pool area.
Or should I say “WAAA-ZUP?”
Yrs Trly has taken to looking into the pool area one last time before leaving.
That’s in case any of my fabulous lady-friends are in there that I should wave goodbye to.
“Oh,” my aquacise-instructor said: “he’s waving goodbye to ******.”
Normally when I make that last look, no one is by the door. People are swimming laps, and two lifeguards are on duty far away; one of whom was ******.
But when I opened the door, there were my aquacise-instructor and her cohort talking.
Lifeguard ****** is probably my all-time favorite lady-friend.
She’s not gorgeous, but she doesn’t look her age, which is 58.
We can talk about anything; we don’t have the dreaded boy-girl problem.
“I need your motherly advice,” I said to her recently.
Others might abstain, but not ******.
I also have my “pretty lifeguard friend” at that swimming-pool. But I don’t think I could run “motherly advice” past her — and she’s 65.
My aquacise-instructor is the cute little sprite with whom I made all too many mistakes, worst of which was thinking she was interested in me.
“What about your wife?” people ask.
I always feel like my wife was a special case. My being attracted to her was prompted by her being attracted to me. “I like the way that Hughes-guy thinks!”
I always felt I’d never attract a female; so her attraction to me was surprising.
That aquacise-instructor was the first not-my-wife female to smile at me — “No pretty lady will ever smile at you!”
Then she wanted to walk dogs with me. Three dog-walks in quick succession. To me that was totally incomprehensible.
“No pretty lady will ever walk dogs with you, Bobby! You are abhorrent!”
“She wants to walk dogs with me — the lifelong scumbag? She must be interested in me!”
My pretty lifeguard friend at that swimming-pool also prompted romantic interest about the same time.
“No pretty lady will ever say hello to you!” But she did.
“She too must be interested in me!” But we got past that after a while.
I thought I lost her twice. But she always returned. Maybe the fact we could talk brought her back.
****** and I can talk too, but my older lifeguard friend is somewhat intimidating. Perhaps because I almost lost her twice.
She’s also impressive — a “looker” for age-65.
But we seem to have got past any romantic interest. What we enjoy now is talking I guess.
Romantic misunderstanding of that aquacise-instructor continued for years. Things happened which piqued my misunderstanding. Plus she never gave me boundaries.
Finally, a few months ago, she did.
And now that she has, she seems a little miffed I reduced my interest in her to almost nothing.
As far as I’m concerned, what led me astray is my hoary childhood. Strident over-judgmental Bible-thumpers convincing me at age-five I was EVIL and disgusting.
That no female would ever have anything to do with me!
One enters the Canandaigua YMCA through a lobby adjacent to the swimming pool area.
In that lobby they do a COVID-19 pre-check.
During that pre-check I look up into the pool area to see if either of my two lifeguard friends, ***** or ******, are there. If they are, I wave, and knock on the partition-glass if I need to.
The other day, the only person I saw was my aquacise-instructor.
Do I wave to her or don’t I?
I decided I better not.