Maggie's Crush

It was Friday before Maggie and I got together again, late that night after the rehearsal dinner. Maggie was going to be a bridesmaid, and naturally, we were paired off in the wedding party. She came down to the basement again, and it was every bit as good as before.

During the interim, I quizzed Mr. and Mrs. Craft about job opportunities in the area, and Mr. Craft said he'd be happy to scout around for me, pass my name along and help me any way he could. He too saw what was budding between Maggie and me, and he made it plain that he approved, although I wondered if he would have been so approving if he had known about our basement tryst.

At the reception, I danced with the bride once, in keeping with custom, but I spent most of the night dancing with Maggie, talking with Maggie and being with Maggie. Later, we made love again in the basement bed, and we stayed at it all night, storing up our love for the weeks we'd be apart.

There were tears all around when I packed up my rental car the next day and headed back to the airport for my flight to Connecticut, but there was an understanding that it wasn't for long.

When I reported for duty the next day, I informed my commanding officer that I had decided that I would not be serving another four years, but would take my discharge when my tour was up. I did give him the courtesy of telling him why I was leaving the service and he smiled.

"Well, Cox, I'm disappointed that you won't be staying on," he said. "The Navy could use good men like you. But it sounds like you've got something good waiting on you back home."

"I do, sir, something very good," I said with a smile. "She's had a crush on me for years, and I never realized it until I went back. Believe me, she's worth it."

I left the Navy in mid-September, and took a job with a company in the town where the state university is located, so I could be close to Maggie, and on New Year's Eve, we announced our engagement. We were married exactly a year, less a day, after Wally's wedding.

You never saw a more beautiful bride than when Maggie Craft came down that aisle to become my wife. As she did, I couldn't help thinking back to the skinny, gawky tomboy who attached herself to my heart when she was a little kid and never left.

Sometimes childhood crushes don't amount to anything, but Maggie figured out early in life what she wanted, she never wavered from her desire, and when she got the chance, she made damn sure she got what she wanted.

Lucky me.