Chapter 6: The Flower Test
I decide to surprise her with a gift. After I found the site: “A Kherson Rose” I decided to send her some roses and candy. (BTW, this is a good practice. It’s a no lose proposition. If your lady is for real, she will love you for it. If she is not for real, then you will find out as soon as they show up to deliver her flowers and take her picture.) As a bonus, I got a picture emailed to me from A Kherson Rose (which they took with a digital camera). An added bonus is that Tim’s wife (the owner of Kherson Rose) actually delivered the roses herself, and visited with Victoria and her father. So, I had another opinion of her to add to my own. Natalia told me that she thought both Victoria and her father were very nice.
Now, I had to see her…. With the tourist season, and far increases, looming, I decided that I should schedule my trip to meet Victoria.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought of all of the advice I had read (and even given others.) “Don’t go to see just one woman. Always have a back-up plan. Always meet her in her home town.” Etc, etc.
And sometimes… all of the rules were made to be broken. I let instinct be my guide, and (humming the words to Sinatra’s “My Way”) I made my plans: I was traveling to Ukraine to meet just one woman, I had no back-up plan, and we weren’t meeting in her hometown, because it would have cut three daysoff of our visit. (BTW, I was kidding about the Sinatra thing… but the rest of it was true…)
I even floated the idea of sending her money for her train ticket. (I figured, shucks, might as well violate ALL of the rules…)
But her response to my suggestion was perfect:
“Mark, let's agree, my tickets… there is a closed subject. You already have made very much for me. I do not want, that you are also worried about this. If you will decide that we shall live together. You will be forced to take care about me for all time (smile).”
Also, note that even in this letter, on May 8th… her mind was made up. As far as she was concerned, we were not meeting in Kiev so she could see if there was any chemistry. She had already decided that she loved me. (I was the lone hold-out). As far as she was concerned, we were meeting for two reasons: One, so her silly American Man could realize what was only too evident to her, and two) so she could be with the man she loved.
How could she know this?
It goes back to that five day spell when I did not write to her. She told me that was when she realized she loved me. Because she went crazy those five days wondering what had happened. She told me that she had never felt that about anyone before. As far as she is concerned, she has never been in love before she met me.
So, the trip to Kiev is planned…
But… the best laid plans…
