A Compliment

Have you ever just clicked with a person you just met? It's happened a few times to me. Yesterday was one of those times. This is entry is about that meeting. I am on a 4 day National Guard duty weekend. I had just come on the morning shift in the operations room and was talking to a female night shift soldier that I had never met before though I had seen her around.
We started started talking and found we had some work history in common and know some of the same people, etc. Very interesting girl, someone whom I could tell had her act together and would like to work with in the future. Pretty interesting, so far.
This female is very open and honest about her life and I enjoyed her candor and ability to open herself to someone she just met. This openess and honesty kind of compelled me to tell her some of my story.
I told her about Caroline. To me, this is a risky move, one that if I had thought about it logically, I would not and should not have told her anything about Caroline.
I felt safe, though and told her everything. All of it. It was heart stopping for me.
Do you know what she said?
Her quote was: "Don't be mad, but when I first met you, I thought you were gay."
!!!
Huh? What's that? Gay? No one has ever said that to my face. I was shocked. But...
She then said, that she saw my wedding ring, and then decided that maybe I wasn't gay, but was a lot effeminate.
I grinned from ear to ear. What a wonderful thing to say. I could have hugged her right there. Instead, I gave her a fist bump. I know, but I was practically surrounded by soldiers. They couldn't hear us talking, but they would have noticed a hug, and certainly tears.
I was then left to wonder what was it that I did that caused that? hmmm. Do others think that but not say it? So many questions without answers.
Maybe I am on my way.