You know, we just celebrated 19 years of marriage. We dated for a bit over 2 years in high school. So, when we broke up, I think it was probably news.... I mean, we were the couple that was going to end up together. There were tears. But, they were my mother's. We were still friends... I guess. We weren't really anything. The difficult thing was that we are from a very small town and all of his friends are my friends.
Prom happened, but we didn't go as a couple. He went with "the cow" and I went with a girlfriend. I was rockin' my black and white strapless while.... well.... I had a friend say she looked like an angel.... a large angel, but OK. Whatever.
Fast forward through the first year of college and into the beginning of the second. I was going into a history class, walking up the stairs, when a hand, coming down the stairs, flew in my face, just to say, "hi."
It was him.
My him.
Boyfriend to the bovine. (I really should stop being ugly.... some of you know her. I'll try to stop, now. K?)
Anyway, we ended up talking on the phone for about 4 hours that night... and every night for a week. One of those nights, we went to a movie.... as friends, you understand, because he was a cattle rancher.... see? There I go again. Sorry. He was dating someone. We WERE childhood friends, so there really shouldn't have been any reason to NOT continue as friends.
A few days into the second week of talking on the phone every evening, of seeing each other every day - really.... we weren't snoggin' on each other, or anything. It was literally "hands off." I mean.... he was taken. I'm not the type of gal to go after someone who is branded, nor is he the type to cheat on his pet.... I mean girlfriend.... (sorry.)
One day, he just didn't call me. Or come by. Nothing. I thought that maybe he was rethinking things and, perhaps, considering that we were probably getting a little too close for comfort.
He had gone to see her. HER.... (now, now... that isn't nice, mooing like that.) He said that he had been with me. Now what he meant, and what she heard, were 2 different things. He meant, simply, that we had spent time together. SHE heard that he had "known me in the Biblical sense." THEN, she did what any woman, totally blindsided by the man she loves would do. She said, "It's OK. I forgive you."
It was not as simple as that. He broke up with her to be with me. Isn't that somethin'?
I'm not sure I deserved that. I sure am glad, though.
Some years later, we had reason to be in contact with the farm. It was my SIL's wedding and "the cow" and her hubby lived in our hometown, where the wedding was to take place.
Hubby *warned* me of this person's presence. It seems she is/was/I don't really know now, a friend to SIL. I was NERVOUS!!! I mean, my hubby, who broke up with this gal (they had been together about 2 years), to marry me, was going to see what he gave up. OH, THE PRESSURE!!! You think it's bad getting ready for a 10 year reunion!
So, there I sat, at my SIL's bachelorette party. Waiting.... FOR HER.
*cue music*
*cue darkness*
*cue spotlight on the door*
She. Was. Fat.
I tell ya.... it was ONLY good-breeding that kept me from doing a happy dance right there in her face.
Seriously.
If you know me, you can imagine.
As soon as she squeezed through the door, I was sweet as sugar to her. "How ARE you? You are looking well!"
The next night, I was helping with the bride's table. I was making sure that everyone had cake and nobody was feeling left out. I noticed one, lone man in the back. He didn't have cake so I approached, smiled and said, "Can I get you a piece of cake?"
He looked at me. Looked around. Then said, "Are you 'the wife?'"
*click*
"Are you, 'the husband?'"
AWKWARD (you have to stretch out the word and sing it in a falsetto voice)
That is the only time we have seen her. And that's OK.
Do I wish her ill-will? Nope, not at all. I don't dislike her.... much. But, there is no room for her in my hubby's memory.
(OK.... I guess I should tell you where her nickname came from. I don't normally just call people "the cow." Her last name was Brown. Do you remember that saying, "How now, brown cow?" Well.... there ya go.)
It's just so fitting.
***The views and petty attitude exhibited in this post are SOLEY my own and do not necessarily belong to my hubby (though he would not admit that to me) or anyone else reading this who may know her. I totally get that this attitude is immature and unseemly. But, I don't really care.
2 comments:
WoW.
Hoot! I'm pretty sure he made the right choice! ;)
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