Gordon’s WhatsApp line on his phone rang and he felt a surge of eagerness as he saw who it was. Helena.

Among the features of a beautiful African woman, it was the space between the eyebrows and its transition to the nose that beguiled Gordon most. Its unromantic medical name is the glabella. In a white woman, the glabella is forced into the narrowness of the nose, but in an African, it remains open and subtle the way a smooth plain dips gently into a shallow valley. The eyes of an African woman appear uncluttered by the dictates of a high nose bridge.

Helena Barfour, the woman messaging Gordon now, was a picture-perfect example of that feature he loved so much. It was last year—he remembered exactly when: two days before Thanksgiving—that she had sent a friend request to him. His breath had caught at the sight of her image. He wanted to trace his fingers lightly over her glabella and soft eyebrows. Her coloring was on the dark side of medium, which Gordon also liked. He had little interest in light-skinned black women, or “copper colored,” as they say in Ghana, where fair skin is highly favored.

On Messenger, Helena had related to Gordon that she was a widow, hence her joining the Facebook group. She was a new member at the time, but her husband had died four years before. It wasn’t that she hadn’t known about the Widow & Widowers page. Rather, it was that she had had little or no interest prior to now.

Why now, if I may ask? Gordon wrote.

I felt I will never find another David, my late husband, Helena replied, and Gordon recalled with nostalgia how Ghanaians use “will” and “would” interchangeably. It made him miss Regina, and indeed Ghana.

I isolated myself, she continued. But then I realized that what my youngest sister had told me repeatedly was true. No, there will never be another David, but that doesn’t mean there are no more worthy men in the world to meet. No one is talking about marriage. It’s about companionship with someone you like and may grow to love.

A very wise younger sister lol, Gordon responded.

Yes, she is—Stella, my favorite. She’s very dear to me.

That’s wonderful. How many siblings do you have?

Three sisters and two brothers.

Do they all live in Accra?

Except one brother in Takoradi. He works on an oil rig.

Ah, I see. May I say something, Helena?

Of course, you may, Gordon.

You are breathtakingly beautiful.

Thank you so much, my dear.

You’re very welcome.

And you too, she added, your pic on Facebook is very handsome.

You’re kind, but I’m just a guy getting old. Gordon added a regret emoticon.

Don’t say that. You’re in your fifties, right? That’s not old at all.

Fifties! Lol, I wish! I’m sixty-two.

Age is just a number. To me, you don’t seem like sixty-eight at all.

Thanks, Helena.

Do you know what I would love? she wrote. It’s just an idea—maybe you wouldn’t like it.