This is the last Helen chapter to appear here on Troubadour 21. Future Helen stories and updates can be found on the Gigi and Helen blog.

http://www.adventuresindating.net

Hippocrates once said, “The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.” I thought of this quote as I walked into our favorite Cuban restaurant that day, toddler in tow and hope in my heart. I saw my physical opposite sitting there in the booth waiting for me, with her petite frame, short, brunette hair, brown eyes, and make-up and clothes of many colors. I stood there and smiled. Me, with my long, blonde hair, blue eyes, tall frame, neutral colored clothes and make-up.

It is funny when people first meet us because we do not look like the type that would gravitate toward one another. Even our ages are different enough that one would think we wouldn’t have enough commonalities to spend a lot of time together. Despite the difference in our physical characteristics, and the differences we have in personalities, Gigi and I are two people who mesh very well and behave like sisters.

That day came with excitement for us, for Gigi and I decided that we really wanted to publish our stories. We were giddy as we ran to meet, thinking that this would all be a quick process. Little did we know the time and effort it takes to get published. Alas, our ignorance and our excitement made us throw all caution to the wind and have no doubts that writing this book would inevitably lead us down a better road. Would we deal with fame? Fortune? We didn’t care, we just wanted to get our stories out there to see if the tales of our humility, heart break, laughter and tears could sooth other wounded souls.

As we hugged, we sat down and excitedly began telling stories of our latest love affairs. We talked and laughed like old souls do. We would laugh with tears in our eyes as the burdens of our problems seemed to float off of our shoulders as we would share our stories of the creeps who had been so careless with our hearts. We would also look off in the distance as we talked of those who weren’t careless with our hearts and perhaps, whom we had wounded. Those that hurt the most, however, were the two lovely men who had stolen Gigi and Helen’s hearts. We all have them, we soon realized after writing our stories. Those who were our true loves but were never meant to be. Whether we were laughing or crying, we realized how lucky we were. Yes, we were still searching for men, but we had found the joy of a friend who can relate to you and isn’t there to pass judgment. How wonderfully blessed we realized we were.

Although it was unfortunate Gigi and I had to learn about love this way, we certainly weren’t the only people in the world to feel battered and bruised and wanted to give up. There were many others that we had spoken with who had similar stories. Stories so compelling, in fact, that as we sat there that day after lunch, we spoke excitedly of how much material similar to that of our book that we had collected from others. We spoke, of course, out of excitement for the recognition in our lives with others, not out of others’ pain. For that, we felt saddened as we got up to pay for our mojitos.

The day was overcast, much like the feelings weighing heavy on our hearts, for we were both going through the pains of love yet again. Gigi and I walked down the street, and finally came upon a very beautiful African American troubadour whom Gigi couldn’t take her eyes off of. Without a word spoken, I shook my head disapprovingly at Gigi and we both laughed, knowing what I meant without having to mutter a sound. As the troubadour sang on, the lyrics of the songs began to tug at our heartstrings and we sat down to listen.

It was as if the troubadour had already read this book and knew the songs that would bring tears to the beautiful brown eyes of Gigi and to my own blue eyes. We sat down while my toddler ran circles around us and we hugged, smiled and let our tears of mixed emotions fall. Happiness, sadness, grief, heart ache, excitement, fear, these were the emotions that were surfacing as the troubadour sang on, vocalizing better in song how we felt than words ever could.

“Won’t you stand… by me… oh, stand by me…” The words floated into the air as the troubadour sang on. Gigi and I just looked at each other, bewildered, thinking the troubadour must be an angel, singing to soothe our souls. Gideon continued to run and occasionally stop and do his whole body shake (the universal toddler dance) while Gigi and I sat and continued to listen. Despite all of the emotions that came flooding out with this beautiful music, we knew one thing for sure. Endless possibilities now lay ahead of us after joining our creative forces.

As we got up to continue on our journey and the music began to fade with the distance that passed between us and that beautiful troubadour, we also knew that although we said we had both given up on finding love; we certainly hadn’t. With time, more stories would come to pass as more dates would come and go, thus creating more stories with lavish details that would fill up continuing stories of our love lives.

This was not the end, but only the beginning to Gigi and I; for much life was yet to be lived for us both as we continue on. Although the leading men will likely change over the course of our stories, as will our emotions on the roller-coaster of love always does, one thing will remain constant; friendship. Friendship is the one thing that has helped us remain sane and continue on through this ride we call life. Perhaps we will find that it was not a man that we needed to find all of these years, perhaps it was just the listening ears, support, and encouragement of a good friend.

As the sun sank into the summer sky, God looked down and sighed, “Finally, they have learned what I have been trying to get them to understand. They are whole on their own.” God smiled as the girls and little Gideon kept walking. All was finally right with the world.

His smile, however quickly faded and the angels nudged one another and smirked as Gigi turned to Helen with her infamous, mischievous smile playing across her face and said, “By the way, Helen… I found a new website yesterday that we haven’t tried yet. It’s called Millionaire Match and I think maybe we should say screw it with finding poor, compatible mates. Let’s go for the money!” God slapped his forehead and said, “Here we go again”.

The End…and yet just the beginning to Gigi and Helen