Mr. Right

By then we were at the restaurant so we didn't talk anymore until we were seated and had given our order. I could tell she was trying to hold it together while awaiting my response to what she told me, but my problem was that I didn't know what my response should be.

While it was true she was never far from my mind and she was the yardstick I measured all the others I'd been with against I didn't know that I wanted to get back into a relationship with her. It took me a long time to get over what she had done to me. Did I want to take the chance that it would never happen again?

What if we got together and some other guy came along and she felt sparks? Would she bail on me again? One of the things I was wondering about was why me? Was it because I was a hundred and eighty degrees away from the men she was attracted to? A druggie for a first husband and an abuser for her second? And who knows about the others that she mentioned. Were they losers too? Were those the types she usually felt a thing for? I'd seen it happen all through high school and college. Great looking girls falling for the bad boy dirt bag types.

Was all I was to her was a safe harbor until the next loser came along and gave her the spark?

I wanted her. God knows I wanted her, but did I dare take the chance that she might hurt me again? I still had the same job and it still had me leaving town for weeks at a time working on some project or another. Did I really want to take her back only to get a phone call in the middle of a trip telling me she'd found another loser she felt an attraction to?

Then I remembered something my dad used to say when things got tough. "No guts; no glory" was his mantra. It all boiled down to one simple question. Did I want her bad enough to take the chance and even as I framed the question in my mind I knew the answer and it was yes. But it wasn't going to be easy.

"Why should I take another chance on you? You hurt me Tanya; you hurt me bad so why should I give you a chance to do it again?"

"It will never happen again Matt. I know now what I tossed away when I left you. If I get you back dynamite won't be able to split us up."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I took the chance. We didn't move back in together right away. We dated for almost eight months during which we made love four or five times a week. I spent three weeks away on one project and a week each on two others. We talked on the phone every night I was gone and I could hear that she was missing me in her voice. We finally moved back in together and a month later we were married in a civil ceremony.

That was six years and two kids ago and we are still going strong. Dad was right. I had the guts to take the chance and I've got all the glory I can handle.