imago

imago\ ih-MAH-goh \ , noun;
1. An idealized concept of a loved one, formed in childhood and retained unaltered in adult life.
2. Entomology . An adult insect.

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A few years back, an old girlfriend from high school re-entered my life; at the time, I didn't have a significant other and was thrilled to see the woman, one of my first loves. We were visiting, catching up on family and old friends and I was reminiscing about things that had happened those many years ago and she looked distressed.

"Mike, I'm not the same person I was back then."

Fair enough, I thought; I'm wasn't either, but I thought it might be flattering to her for me to remember so many things we had done together. Oh well, maybe she didn't view those times with as much fondness as did I.

It would have taken a deaf and blind person to have not noticed the signals she was sending out, though...she wanted something immediate, something "physical". - ahem-

I turned to her and said "You remember back when we were kids? We'd go parking - you would want to talk and I'd want to fool around?" She nodded, with a small smile on her face that vanished when I went on:

"Well, now it's the other way around."