“Would You Rather Come Home With Me?”

SILVER & SAPPHIRE MAGAZINE Love Younger. Live Larger. THE DIRECT APPROACH — JUST ASK! Some women wait for romance. Others make it happen. In this recurring Silver & Sapphire feature, successful, wealthy women over 50 share how one remarkably direct question to a beautiful younger woman led to an unexpected night, an extraordinary offer, and sometimes a completely new life together. This Issue: Eleanor, 62 & Rebecca, 27 One rain-soaked evening. One desperate young woman. One unexpected night. And a breakfast in bed that changed everything. HER STORY — ELEANOR, 62 Eleanor Whitmore was sixty-two, a widow, and considerably wealthier than most people could imagine. Her late husband had founded a successful medical technology company, and after his death Eleanor inherited the controlling interest, several properties, and investments that provided an annual income far beyond anything she could reasonably spend. She lived in a magnificent home overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Diego, employed a housekeeper and gardener, and owned apartments in London and New York. Her life was comfortable, secure, and unbearably quiet. "I lost my husband eight years ago," Eleanor explained. "We had a good marriage, but toward the end we were more business partners than lovers. After he died, I discovered something rather embarrassing. I had more money than I knew what to do with and nobody I particularly wanted to spend it on." She had dated occasionally, including several women closer to her own age, but nothing had lasted. "I wasn't looking for a housekeeper, an assistant, or someone who needed permission to have a life. I wanted a girlfriend. Someone beautiful, affectionate, spontaneous, and young enough to remind me that the world was still full of possibilities." HER STORY — REBECCA, 27 Rebecca Hayes had once imagined a very different future. At twenty-three, she married her college boyfriend, became pregnant the following year, and believed she was building the family she had always wanted. Then everything fell apart. Her baby daughter was born prematurely and died after eleven days in intensive care. Rebecca's husband began drinking heavily, blamed her for their daughter's death, and eventually left her for another woman. The divorce consumed what little money Rebecca had saved. Her husband stopped contributing to their joint debts, and she eventually lost the small apartment they had shared. She moved in with her mother, only to lose her to cancer eighteen months later. By twenty-seven, Rebecca had buried her daughter and her mother, survived a disastrous marriage, and found herself working long shifts at a hotel laundry while renting a tiny room from a woman who threatened eviction whenever the rent was late. "I wasn't living," Rebecca told us quietly. "I was getting through each day because I didn't know what else to do." Three weeks before meeting Eleanor, Rebecca received notice that the hotel was closing its laundry operation. She was losing her job. And she had nowhere else to go. THE ENCOUNTER — JUST ASK! S&S: Rebecca, where did you meet Eleanor? Rebecca: "At the hotel where I worked. I'd finished my shift and was sitting outside beneath the entrance canopy because it was raining so hard. I had just received another message from my landlady demanding money, and I was crying." Eleanor: "I came outside to wait for my driver. There was this lovely young woman sitting on a bench, trying very hard not to let anybody see how upset she was." Rebecca: "She asked if I was all right. I told her I was fine, which was a ridiculous lie." Eleanor: "I sat down beside her and said, 'Darling, you're clearly not fine. Would you like to tell me what happened?'" S&S: And you told her everything? Rebecca: "Not immediately. But she was so kind. She listened without interrupting, and before I knew it, I was telling this complete stranger things I hadn't told anybody." Eleanor: "When she finished, I asked whether she'd eaten. She said no. I asked whether she had somewhere comfortable to sleep. She started crying again." Rebecca: "Then Eleanor took my hand and asked me the most outrageous question." S&S: Which was? Rebecca: "'Would you rather come home with me?'" S&S: What did you think she meant? Rebecca: "I thought she meant I could stay in a guest room! Then she smiled and said, 'Rebecca, I should probably be quite clear. I find you extremely attractive, and I'm asking whether you'd like to spend the night with me. Not because you owe me anything, but because I would genuinely enjoy your company.'" Eleanor: "I also told her she was welcome to dinner and a separate bedroom if she preferred. I wasn't about to take advantage of someone who'd already had a terrible day." Rebecca: "I just stared at her. I'd never been with a woman before, and here was this stunning, sophisticated woman more than twice my age asking me to go home with her." S&S: And your answer? Rebecca: "I asked, 'Are you serious?' She said, 'Entirely.' Then I asked if she would mind if I kissed her first." Eleanor: "I told her I would be delighted." Rebecca: "And I kissed her. Right there, outside the hotel, with the rain pouring down." THE NIGHT — SOMETHING NEITHER EXPECTED S&S: What happened when you reached Eleanor's home? Rebecca: "I nearly fainted! I'd never seen a house like it. The ocean, the enormous windows, the beautiful furniture. I asked her if she actually lived there alone." Eleanor: "She looked around my living room and said, 'All this for one person?' I remember answering, 'That's precisely the problem.'" Rebecca: "We had dinner in her kitchen because I felt uncomfortable with all that luxury. She lent me a beautiful silk robe after I showered, and we sat on the sofa talking until almost two in the morning." S&S: And eventually? Rebecca: "Eventually I kissed her again. And this time I didn't stop." Eleanor: "I think we can leave the remaining details to our readers' imaginations." Rebecca: "I'll just say this. I'd spent years feeling unwanted, unattractive, and somehow responsible for everything terrible that had happened to me. Eleanor made me feel beautiful again. I never imagined a woman of sixty-two could be so romantic, affectionate, and exciting." Eleanor: "And I hadn't felt so wonderfully alive in years." THE MORNING AFTER — THE REAL SURPRISE S&S: Eleanor, apparently you had a rather extraordinary proposition waiting the next morning? Eleanor: “I did. I woke before Rebecca and lay there watching her sleep for a while, which probably sounds a little sentimental, but that’s the truth. She looked so peaceful, and I remember thinking how long it had been since I had wanted someone to stay.” Rebecca: “When I woke up, she wasn’t beside me, and for one horrible second I thought maybe I had imagined everything.” Eleanor: “I had gone downstairs to arrange breakfast. I wanted the morning to feel special.” Rebecca: “A few minutes later she came back in wearing this beautiful silk robe and carrying a silver breakfast tray with coffee, juice, fruit, croissants — the whole impossible luxury-hotel fantasy. I just stared at her.” S&S: Breakfast in bed? Rebecca: “Yes — actual breakfast in bed. Nobody had ever done anything like that for me.” Eleanor: “I set the tray across her lap, kissed her forehead, and asked whether she had slept well.” Rebecca: “I told her it was the best night I’d had in years.” Eleanor: “And then I asked her the question I had been thinking about since dawn.” S&S: Which was? Eleanor: “I said, ‘Rebecca, would you like to wake up like this every morning?’” Rebecca: “At first I honestly thought she meant the breakfast.” Eleanor: “I told her I meant all of it — the mornings, the companionship, the affection, the possibility of building a life together if we discovered that we truly suited one another.” Rebecca: “I just sat there in bed staring at her, holding my coffee cup like it might somehow keep me steady.” Eleanor: “I explained that I wanted her to stay, if she wished. Not as an employee, not as someone who owed me anything, but as the woman I hoped might become my girlfriend.” Rebecca: “Then she told me I could stay with her, take time to breathe, and decide what I wanted next. She said if we worked well together, she’d love to share her home, her travels, and her life with me.” S&S: Did you believe her immediately? Rebecca: “No. I asked her why she would do something like that for someone she had only met the night before.” Eleanor: “And I told her, ‘Because I’m lonely, darling. Because you’re beautiful. Because last night was wonderful. And because I’d rather take a chance on happiness than spend another year pretending I don’t need anyone.’” Rebecca: “That was when I started crying again.” Eleanor: “I remember sitting beside her on the bed and telling her she didn’t have to apologize for her past, her sadness, or the state of her life. I told her we could figure out tomorrow together.” Rebecca: “So I said yes. Not just because of the house or the breakfast or the sheer impossibility of the moment — though all of that was overwhelming — but because for the first time in a very long while, I felt wanted.” WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Eighteen months later, Eleanor and Rebecca are still together. Rebecca has returned to college to complete her nursing degree, something she abandoned after her daughter's death. Eleanor encouraged her to pursue her own ambitions and has happily supported her studies. They have traveled to London, Paris, Rome, and the Maldives, although Rebecca says her favorite place remains Eleanor's kitchen, where they still eat breakfast together whenever they're home. Rebecca has also established a small charitable fund in memory of her daughter, helping families with premature babies who struggle to afford accommodation near neonatal intensive care units. Eleanor calls Rebecca the greatest surprise of her life. Rebecca says that Eleanor didn't erase her grief or magically solve everything that had happened to her, but gave her the love, security, and encouragement to imagine a future again. Eleanor: "I thought I was offering a lonely young woman a little happiness. I had no idea how much happiness she would bring into my life." Rebecca: "People ask me whether I ever think about our age difference. Of course I do. But then Eleanor reaches for my hand, and I remember that I almost walked away from the best thing that ever happened to me." And what about that rather direct first question? Rebecca: "I'm very glad she asked. Although these days, when Eleanor asks whether I'd like to spend the night with her, I usually tell her she doesn't need to ask anymore!" THE DIRECT APPROACH — JUST ASK! Another love story from Silver & Sapphire Magazine — where successful women discover that sometimes the shortest distance between loneliness and happiness is one simple question. Love Younger. Live Larger.