Rooster's First Kiss

Rooster's First Kiss

Richard knew he wasn’t that good looking, especially here in Hollywood, where everyone looked like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, for God’s sake, but he did have a certain 'something,' a special quality that he knew was particularly attractive to young actresses like Lola; he was funny—really funny. Not that kind of three-men-walked-into-a-bar funny--which, by the way, always made him think, “Wow, I’ll bet that really hurt”—but the kind of funny that was built on timing and intelligence. So, when he called Lola to ask her for a date, and she reported that she could only talk for a minute because she was in the midst of cooking an artichoke, he had said---without skipping a beat—“Be sure to save the heart for me.” He remembered now, how Lola had said, “You think you’re funny, don’t you?” and he had responded, “Well I am a stand-up comedian, you know.”

When, a week later, Richard arrived for their first date dressed in a yellow and red, giant rooster costume, he paused at Lola’s front door before knocking, just so that he could savor the anticipated moment when Lola would answer the door and burst out in fits of uncontrollable laughter. Richard was certain she’d be unable to prevent herself from kissing him in a deep kiss on the beak—even before she had a chance to shake his outstretched wing. He did feel a quick twinge of self-doubt, however—even if it were ever-so-fleeting-- when, perched there on Lola’s front porch, he had found himself wondering, “Do Roosters have lips?”