My ex-wife surprised me today.

We were on the phone comparing notes about holiday plans when, for some reason she said, "Oh! I was thinking of you the other day! She said it with a smile in her voice so I knew it was nothing with legal entanglements.

"What?" I asked, still pensively.

"We're having our kitchen cabinets redone."

That was all she had to say and we both broke out into laughter.

Back in 1980 I was working at WHIM, a country radio station in Rhode Island. My ex and her family were regular listeners. Actually, that's putting it mildly; the were fanatics. On either my first or second day on the job I was told about her family and was quickly added to their list of DJ's they call on an almost constant basis.

My ex was in high school at the time and had a crush on almost every male on the air staff. Jim O'Brien was first; her pubescent heart skipped a beat at the mere mention of his name and I swear still does to this day. Mike Bessette and I seemed to be second choice, and we were happy to be; it was a safe place. Kevin O'Connor seemed to fall into the older cousin she wished really wasn't a cousin and they have developed a strong friendship over the years. Chuck Hinman was older and seemed like an uncle of sorts.

All of us, though, we constant targets of almost endless phone calls, meeting them at almost every remote broadcast and numerous visits to the station. Needless to say, our relationship ended up going a little further than that, but that was years after leaving that station and could be a whole series of blog entries on their own. All the time I was working there we flirted with each other. I was a little bit older and I'm sure the attention from one of her crushes made her feel good. One of the first times our relationship stepped outside of the radio station was when he mother was looking for someone to redo their kitchen cabinets.

I was making little money working part time at the station and was going to college so the offer of a few extra bucks for simple stripping, re-painting and lining of cabinets seemed like an easy enough job and I got to hang out with my ex; which, at the time, seemed like not too bad a thing.

I must have gone there a half dozen time and gotten about half of the job done. Then, something came up and I never got back to finish. It's been so long that I don't even remember but it eventually became a joke between my ex and I. Of course, our relationship ended up like the cabinet job and I don't think she's ever mentioned it before today.

It was nice to hear the nostalgia in her laughter. She seemed to actually look back on something in our shared past with affection. There have been times, since our divorce, when we could not be in the same room for more than three minuets without breaking into shouting matches of insults and recriminations. Suddenly, I was back in the cramped studio in East Providence talking with a giggly teenager 2 minuets and 30 seconds at a time in between country western records. The "passionate" love is long since dead and gone but I can honestly say that I do love my friend after all these years.

It was the nicest present she never knew she gave me.