The One That Got Away (part 1 of 2)

Let me tell you a story. It’s a story about a girl who fell head over heels for a guy. And he fell for her, too, only there were a few complications. They worked together and both traveled, neither was from the same state, so it didn't seem like a relationship would work outside their current situation. The girl wasn’t really in the right place to have a serious relationship and the guy had just gotten out of one. It was difficult, sometimes, but they had an undeniable connection with each other. Then they got hit by a seemingly impossible hurdle - midway through their courtship the guy got back together with his ex-girlfriend, something about the "sure thing" that she was and the riskier option that the girl was. And then the girl changed jobs and they were both working and living in separate states.

The girl thought that would be that, but once she left they still talked all the time. She realized that she really, really cared about him. So she put it all on the line, and told him that she wanted to give a real relationship a try. Two weeks later he proposed to his girlfriend.

The girl was pretty devastated. She felt like she and this guy really had something - because, dear reader, they really did - and that she had ruined it by not addressing her feelings earlier. She felt like he was The One That Got Away.

She also felt the guy was making a terrible mistake. But he got married, and she got over it. She had really, truly moved on, until almost five years later when he ran into an old co-worker of theirs who still had her email and gave it to him.

At first she didn’t want to talk to him at all. She assumed he was only writing because he’d gotten divorced (which he had) and possibly that he wanted to get back together (which he had crazy romantic ideas about). She was worried there would be this flood of sad emotions about what could have been if she opened that door.

Instead she had the same crazy romantic thoughts. Not without a good dose of caution, she was very aware that a lot of time had passed, and that the girl that fell in love with that boy was a great many years wiser and significantly more assertive. Who knew how different the guy might be, plus he was still hurting from his divorce. There was a lot of history, but she couldn’t deny her heart.

And so I gave him my phone number and waited for him to call.