This is gossip with absolutely no malicious intent. So bear with me as I try to be discreet sharing this absolutely scrumptuous story.

For a couple of years, I have noticed a lovely man and his son on my block. He is divorced and seems to have custody of the young boy, who is about nine years old. They play soccer in front of their building and other ball games. I see them sometimes doing homework at the cafe. The mother is sometimes around – she comes by to pick up the boy once a week and on weekends. It is always so strange when a woman doesn’t have custody of her child. Sad to say, it raises suspicions in me – what is the matter with this mother that she isn’t with her son?

But I have a soft spot for this father – he seems to take such good care of his boy. And he seems so serious with his sensible green parka and the studious look on his face.

Last summer, a divorced woman with four, yes four, children moved into their building. There is something very sweet about this woman – she always says hello and has a fairy tale pretty face. Sometimes she looks overwhelmed, infused with a "do I have the energy get through this day" look. But mostly she looks like she enjoys "homeschooling" her two younger children while the other two attend our local elementary school. Recently I’ve noticed the dad: he takes care of the kids on the weekends.

For months, I’ve harbored fantasies that this divorced man and this divorced woman would fall in love. I’ve noticed that they do a lot of things together with their  kids. It’s sweet to see the man’s son play with the woman’s four children in the yard – an instant family for this only-child, soccer whiz. The combined families walk to school together often and I once saw the father and mother standing underneath the same umbrella, which was for me a sign of latent intimacy.

Well today it happened. I saw them hug. Really hug. Like two people in love. And I swooned. It’s the Brady Bunch come true – a relationship for the parents, siblings for the little boy, and one more brother for the already bulging sibling-group of four.

I may be making this up. Maybe it was platonic hug, a "it’s a hard day" kind of hug. Maybe there is no romance at all.

But for me, it was so gratifying to see my dream become a reality. It looked like the real thing and it made my heart leap a little every time I thought about it.

Yours from Brooklyn,

OTBKB