The Love of a Good Woman

As a beer cart girl, there are many things that you have to do to humour the guests.  But no one had ever done anything like this before...

Mr. L always liked to entertain himself by making harmless passes at the beer cart girl of the day.  One day, I asked him if he needed anything and he replied "just the love of a good woman".  I laughed and tried to think of a witty response but ended up telling him that we had unfortunately sold out.  For the weeks following, I was trying to think of a better response for Mr. L and couldn't seem to come up with anything.  He continued to ask me for the love of a good woman and I continued to tell him that our stock was delayed.

In June, I went up North to visit my roommate.  While she gave me the house tour, I was looking casually at her father's library collection.  One spine especially caught my attention; "The Love of a Good Woman" a collection of short love stories by Alice Munro.  This was the response I was looking for!

When I returned home, I was telling my boyfriend's mother about Mr. L and my idea to give him Munro's book on his next visit to the golf course.  The next day, she had bought me the book and I was prepared to hop on the beer cart and give Mr. L exactly what he was asking for.

Later that week, after storing the book on the stocking shelf for a few days, I had seen on the tee-sheet that Mr. L was on the course.  I loaded the cart and set the book on the dashboard and searched for Mr. L, hoping that he would say his catch phrase to me.  As I was driving past hole 9, he was driving down another path, and I missed him on my route.  When I went back to the club house, my manager Lauren, insisted that I go directly to hole 10 to deliver the book.  Without restocking the cart, I hopped in and made my way across the parking lot.

I stopped the cart next to Mr. L and his group.  I look at him with a grin and said "Can I get you anything?" to which he replied "Just the love of a good woman".  Yes! Just what I wanted to hear!  "I'm so glad you said that Mr. L" I said as I hopped out, Munro in hand.  Mr. L looked very confused as I handed him the novel.  He read the author's name out loud and laughed as he found the title.  Finally, I was able to give him the love of a good woman.