There she sat at the bar, just staring into a lonely drink, wondering if he would ever show. It had not been the first time she had waited for him but she was sure it would be the last; she was tired of the lies, and the excuses. She was still young and wanted to get on with her life.

She met him when she was nineteen years old. She was instantly attracted to him. Although she was engaged. the feeling for her fiancé was not the same in comparison to what she felt for him.

At that time in her life she was not sure of anything. She would take the same route to work everyday, making her pass the half way house where he lived in with about twenty five other addicts. In the morning as she passed him he would only say “good morning” and smile. In the evenings he would be there and again say “good evening” This went for a few months before he cooked up the nerve to ask her name.

It was a beautiful summer and she remembers hearing a song by “The Fifth Dimension” playing on someone’s radio. She would were her clothes with beauty and grace and even lost some weight; at one hundred twenty five pounds she knew she looked good. She wondered why she didn’t feel that way for her fiancé, but she didn’t even care. She was being noticed by someone else, someone with a beautiful smile.

At first they talked a lot, neither one wanted anything more. They talked about everything music, art, poems, life and love. After a few months she knew it was becoming harder for him to see her on a friendship basis, so they said good-bye. It would not be the first nor the last goodbye between them. It was however, the most heat breaking good bye of her life. She cried for what seem like years but in fact was only a few months. She avoided all contact with him. Her engagement was off and she didn’t even care. She was not in love with her fiancé; she was in love with him…..

Copyright © 2005 Mary Chapman