By Ilene Felman, October 14, 2019 — March of 1987, I showed up for just another day at work as the secretary at St. Pius psychiatric hospital in New York. All of a sudden, an extremely handsome Puerto Rican man strolls in asking for Gene, who happens to be a co-worker of mine. When Gene stepped out of the office, they were hugging and kissing on the cheek, and I was immediately disappointed, assuming this “gift from God” is dating Gene. I thought he was the most attractive person I’d ever seen. Next thing I know, he walks up to me and introduces himself as Michael. He proceeded to tell me how pretty I looked, and that he’d love to take me out sometime. I said, “Aren’t you dating Gene?” and he replied that they were like brother and sister, been close friends for a long, long time. After that, he asked for my phone number, and I gave it to him. We started dating soon after, and he showed me what being in love truly was like. We cooked together, had deep conversations on a regular basis, cleaned together, and truly enjoyed each other’s company.
