Jayne and Margot are our neighbors and, together with Andrea and Dana, make up our closest circle of friends.

Margot is a college professor and very well read. She is the kind of person to whom you can pose any question about world politics, the phases of the moon or how the Federal Reserve works and she will have a good answer off the cuff.

Jack is that way also and if you see them talking at a party and eavesdrop on their conversation it is like a panel discussion on PBS.

Jayne is also quite brainy, but people don't expect her to be. She is drop-dead gorgeous and has a tendency to giggle and pop her gum -- but she will probably beat you at Jeopardy.

Jayne and I met a couple years ago when we were both art models at the college. I was living with Claire then, but she was relocating to New York, and I was not going with her. Our relationship had never been great and I was ready for it to be over. But that presented me with a problem because I would need someplace else to live and had very little money.

Fortunately, I was at a really good place in terms of my bipolar symptoms and was looking for an actual full time job. And I found one! But there was a catch. It was at that tech company I have mentioned, and they said they definitely wanted to hire me, but had to wait until the beginning of the next quarter to have the funding -- and that was four or five weeks away. I knew that once I had that job and paycheck, I'd be able to rent my own apartment, but until then I had to find someplace to stay.

Jayne and I were acquainted but only in passing because we rarely worked at the same time. Even when we did, it's not like you can chat while posing. One time we were posed together, both nude, in an embrace that had us facing each other as if we were about to kiss. We could not speak or even change our facial expressions, and yet we sort of got to know each other through eye contact alone.

That story would be really romantic if we'd fallen in love that way, but we didn't. I was in the process of disentangling myself from Claire and had no interest in jumping into another relationship. Plus, as beautiful as Jayne is, she's not my main physical type. I am most attracted to muscular, bad-ass athletic girls while Jayne is more soft and voluptuous -- but heck, that's pretty darned fun too.

I didn't know it at the time, but I really wasn't her type either. She is drawn to slightly older, more mature women, and I'm pretty sure I have never been described as mature. Also, she was secretly in love with someone.

It was during breaks from that modeling session that we had our first real conversation, during which I mentioned my housing situation. Then we were in the pose again for 20 minutes, staring in each other's eyes but unable to speak. At the next break, Jayne told me she was in a short-term money crunch also during the long break until the new semester when she'd have her stipend again.

"Theoretically, you could stay at my place and pay me whatever you can afford," she said, "but there's one problem with that." Before she could explain further, our little rest break was over and we had to get into the pose again. The fact that she now couldn't tell me what the problem was and I couldn't ask somehow struck us both as funny as we sort of pretended to communicate using only our eyes. This made us laugh and after that we were unable to keep it together. Fortunately, the prof and the art students found this amusing also, and the session time was nearly up anyway.

When we could finally talk again, Jayne told me her place was nearby so we could just walk over and look at it, but that I should not get my hopes up.

It was a "garden studio," which sounds nice but in apartment terms, "studio" means one room and "garden" means basement. She slept on an unfolded futon that took up a third of the room. There was one sink to serve both bathroom and kitchen. The toilet was about the size of an airplane bathroom, and the shower was enclosed only by its own curtain and was otherwise open to the room.

Obviously, we would have to share a bed so we discussed this like grownups. We both said we usually slept naked but were certainly willing to wear something if the other would be more comfortable that way, followed by both of us saying that really wouldn't be necessary. Having established that we'd be sharing a bed naked, we continued our adult conversation by agreeing that we would, of course, keep things platonic. Absolutely, we agreed, because otherwise things could get complicated and besides, neither of us wanted to get into a relationship at that time.

So I moved into Jayne's tiny apartment, we slept in the same bed naked and by golly we DID keep things platonic -- for the first few nights. Then we had sex. Then we talked about the fact that we had sex and agreed it would be best not to do that anymore. Then we had sex again and talked about it again. This time we agreed that IF we had sex again it would just be "friendship sex" without romance or falling in love. So that was what we did -- we had lots of sex but did not fall in love with each other -- except as great friends.

Sharing a bed with someone is intimate in ways other than sex. We were like giggly schoolgirls having a sleepover and telling each other all our secrets. That's how I learned about her secret crush -- Margot, who was one of Jayne's professors and her advisor. But Jayne had not revealed her feelings, and explained to me that she had a plan. She was playing the long game. -- waiting until she graduated at the end of spring semester. When she was no longer a student, THEN she would tell Margot. Meanwhile, she was conducting espionage, trying to find out whether Margot was in a relationship and, most importantly, whether she was gay.

Even to me, a hopeless romantic who believed her One True Love was out there waiting to be found, Jayne's obsession seemed to me like a youthful infatuation that she would outgrow. I didn't say that of course, and as we lay in her bed in the dark, our sweaty limbs entwined and the taste of each other's vaginas still wet on our lips, I would listen patiently to her detailed accounts of her latest encounter with Margot. Invariably, it was little more than a benign exchange of small talk, yet every word and facial expression was microscopically examined for potential hidden meaning.

One day, Jayne came back to the apartment in triumph. She had "bumped into" one of Margot's former grad students, from whom Jayne extracted the Holy Grail of intel -- that Margot was indeed a lesbian. I did not get any sleep at all that night.

Somehow those six weeks flitted by and I was starting my new job and renting what for me was a fantastic apartment within walking distance of the office. This was important because I also did not have a car.

Jayne and I had a blubbery farewell, but would see each other now and then and continued having occasional bouts of friendship sex until I started dating Andrea.

After the semester ended and Jayne had graduated, she went looking for Margot to deliver the speech she had been mentally preparing for months. But Margot was already gone -- off to Europe where she was to be a visiting lecturer for a summer term.

Jayne stayed in my apartment that night and I held her while she cried. I did my best to console her. At least the news hadn't been that Margot had left on her honeymoon or moved to Europe for a new job. Heck, she was coming back by the end of summer, and it might even be better that way because more time would have gone by since Jayne had just been a college student.

So time went by and then one night we were at a bar near campus getting a little drunk because it was Happy Hour and the drinks were practically free so what else could we do? An hour or two into this, Jayne was looking around the bar and froze, her mouth open. I followed her gaze and it was Margot, whom I had never met but recognized from the photos Jayne kept showing me (some of which she had surreptitiously taken herself while stalking).

Margot was with a group of academic types in their 30s and 40s. As I watched, Margot glanced around the room and her eyes stopped when they found Jayne. I feared that Margot would show only minimal polite interest in seeing one of her many former students -- or that Jayne would blurt out her speech in front of everyone and get humiliated by the most likely outcome. You, dear reader, have the advantage of knowing that there would be a happy ending. I had no such luxury and was petrified.

Margot's face broke into a delighted smile -- so far, so good -- and then excused herself from her table and came over to ours. She said very nice things, introduced herself to me and told me how very much she had enjoyed having Jayne in her class. Jayne said almost nothing, seeming unable to move or perhaps even breathe, and then Margot was wishing us a nice evening and headed back to her table.

I looked at Jayne and the spell seemed to break. She called out "WAIT!" a little too loud and spilled her drink leaping up from the table, running to where Margot had paused in the middle of the restaurant. She turned to face Jayne, and now everyone in the restaurant was watching.

I could not hear what was being said but I could see Margot's face and I promised the God I didn't believe in that I would be a better person or sacrifice a goat or whatever if He would just please-oh-please allow this one nice thing to happen.

At first I assumed Jayne was delivering her rom-com speech, but Margot's expression did not change in any of the various ways one might expect upon hearing such a speech. She continued to smile and nod reassuringly like a professor talking to a favored student.

When they parted and Jayne came back to our table, she told me she did not give The Speech, but only asked for an appointment to come to Margot's office to discuss Jayne's future -- which was very clever since it was not a lie. As my heart slowly returned to its normal rhythm, I flagged down our server and begged for another drink.

The appointment was a few days later. It was a work day for me but I took a vacation day to be nearby in case things did not go well -- which I admit was still the outcome I expected. I was not in the room of course, but in the two years since I have heard both of them tell the story several times.

Yes, Jayne gave her speech confessing she had been in love with Margot for nearly a year. This revelation came as a complete and utter surprise to Margot, who could not quite digest what she was hearing and half suspected it must be some cruel practical joke.

When she finally realized Jayne meant what she was saying, Margot decided it must just be a youthful infatuation. She'd been the object of student crushes before, but nothing like this. On top of that, Margot was afraid to allow herself to believe that such a beautiful young woman could actually be in love with her, a nearly 40-year-old bookish woman who had never considered herself particularly attractive.

And then Jayne kissed her.

It was, according to all of the two people in the room, a kiss for the ages. Margot has since said that everything in her entire life is now defined by Before The Kiss and After The Kiss.

If this was a movie, the credits would now roll and the audience would leave knowing that the adorable couple lived happily ever after. Jayne and Margot are indeed a happy couple now, but just as Mona and I had a rough patch early on, so did they. As with me and Mona, the first few days of their relationship they were myopically focused on each other. They hardly knew what day or time it was as they spent long stretches in bed talking and caressing and exploring each other's bodies and making each other orgasm and laugh at practically the same time. The problems began when they came up for air and ventured out into the world again.

For Jayne, being in an actual non-imaginary relationship with Margot was everything she had been dreaming of for a year, and she wanted everyone to know about it. But Margot seemed to want to keep things quieter, and kept putting off any socializing with her own friends and colleagues. Even when they went to dinner on their own, Margot seemed reluctant to hold hands or otherwise show that they were a couple.

Jayne was hurt by this, assuming it meant that Margot was embarrassed by her and ashamed to be seen dating someone so young. They ended up having a big fight about it, and Margot admitted to having tried to keep the relationship quiet, but for a different reason than Jayne assumed.

Margot said she was not at all ashamed or embarrassed being seen with a dazzling young girlfriend. But she could not shake the dread that it would all evaporate one day when Jayne decided she was over her silly crush and ready to move on, leaving Margot behind. And if everyone knew, then in addition to her broken heart she'd be publicly humiliated by having been such a fool to think a girl like Jayne could really be in love with her.

The next day, Jayne got Margot's name tattooed on her shoulder, and Margot finally allowed herself to believe that this fantastic and altogether unexpected thing was really happening to her -- and that Jayne was in it for the long haul.

After Mona and I bought this property. Jayne and Margot fell in love with the old house down by the road and have done a great job fixing it up.

Which reminds me . . . I still owe God a goat.