Gabby_ A Story of Courage and Hope - Alison Hanson [15]
I was married at the time, and for me, this dinner would be just another professional encounter, like hundreds I’d had before. I certainly didn’t see or consider anything romantic. But I was impressed with Gabby immediately. I couldn’t help but notice the obvious. She was beautiful, ambitious, incredibly smart, accomplished, and a lot of fun to talk to.
At the time, my first wife and I were struggling in our marriage. We already had filed for divorce once and then reconciled, but we were preparing to file again. I didn’t get into any of that with Gabby. We were both very circumspect. We ate, we talked about our jobs and the trip ahead, and then we said good night.
The next day, as we boarded the plane for China, Gabby spotted me, the only familiar face in the crowd, and said, “Why don’t we sit together?” That sounded like a good way to pass twelve hours, so I agreed. We talked the whole way to China. Again, it was very professional. I was a married guy with two daughters. She was dating someone and told me a little about him. We remained friendly while in China, but our schedules were so full there, we didn’t get to spend a whole lot of time interacting.
After we all returned to the States, a year passed without any contact between us. But then, in 2004, it was time for the group to meet up again in the United States, and Gabby being Gabby, she volunteered to host the entire gathering in Arizona. She wanted to show off her state—the Grand Canyon, the Red Rocks of Sedona, the charms of Tucson. It was a lot of work, but the civic booster in her embraced all of it.
My life had changed since I’d last seen Gabby. I arrived at the reunion as a divorced man. In fact, the divorce had been finalized just two days earlier.
Though Gabby and I were glad to see each other again, I still didn’t have romance on my mind. For one thing, I thought she was way out of my league. Given all that she had going for her, I doubted that she’d want to get involved with a newly divorced guy who had two kids and lived almost a thousand miles away in Houston.
But we did enjoy spending time together during that reunion in Arizona. Gabby brought the Chinese-American group to a local ranch for a cattle roundup, and after we all assembled, the ranch owner made a very generous offer. “If any of you can lasso three cows in a row,” he announced, “I’ll give you my ranch.”
Gabby always reveled in a challenge, and she figured I must have a similar personality, being an astronaut. When we were broken into teams of six, she wanted to be on my team. She figured we’d win.
As the rancher surmised, this group of smart, proud, self-confident Chinese and American go-getters turned out to be ill-suited for cow-lassoing. Only one person got the hang of it: me. None of the participants could lasso even one cow, but for some reason, I was able to lasso two of them. I just missed on the third—the rope was on the cow’s head and slipped off—so I didn’t get the deed to the ranch. But I did impress Gabby. “So you can fly space shuttles. You can lasso cows. What else can you do?” she asked.
I didn’t want to tell her I was running out of amazing feats. She’d figure that out soon enough.
We spent more time together at this gathering than we had in China. One day, Gabby and I skipped the aerial tour of the Grand Canyon and went hiking instead. For the first time, we talked in more detail about our personal lives. Gabby told me about the men she had dated. Some were very wealthy or had big jobs, but she didn’t think there was the right chemistry or she saw no future. “It’s tough to be single,” she told me.
I talked about my daughters, Claudia and Claire, then ages nine and seven, and about how my ex-wife and I were figuring out the best way to share custody. Gabby was easy to talk to, and she was a great listener.
When I got back to Houston, what I saw as a growing friendship continued. We’d trade e-mails.