Since I’ve been married for almost 23 years, saying I let someone slip away would be exceedingly loyal to Mrs. Kunilou.
However…
I dated a girl in college who seemed perfect for me. She broke it off. Five years later we got back together. She broke it off again. She joined a convent. I wouldn’t say she slipped away, I’d say I lost to a more worthy competitor.
A few years ago, I ran across another girl I had dated for awhile in college. Through the years she had become a lot funnier, a lot smarter and a lot more interesting than the girl I had dated. I think she falls into the “what-if” category, though.
Yes, I did. And she’s dead now, so there’s no hope of reconciling. We’d split up, went our own separate ways, and met up again years later. We went out to dinner, talked of rekindling, and she was shot dead in a gas station robbery while I was about 75 feet away, sitting in the car.
Yup. Horrible affair, supposed to not have emotional ties. Did so. I hurt him. Broke up. Pined for each other. Was thrown back together by friends that were sick of us. Stayed together for a few months. He hurt me. Broke up. Tried once more. He hurt me again.
It was the most passionate/volatile relationship I had ever been in. We were too much alike. It was scary.
Yup. I offered to marry her so her visa wouldn’t run out, but she said: “But then I’d owe you everything.”
It was an argument I couldn’t find it in myself to contest. I too am independent to a fault, that was why we got along so well. We understood each other instinctively like that.
Now she’s back in Australia. I hope someday she can come back to the US. I still miss her…
-Ben
It’s so interesting that I happen across this thread now… I am wondering what to do. I work at a law firm here in Chicago, and the most intelligent, beautiful, and humorous woman I have ever met came to work here over the winter. I only knew her for one day, but we hit it off famously. She moved back to Wisconsin to finish school and, mainly because of past problems with long-distance relationships on my part, I never followed up on it. Recently she rejoined the firm for the summer and again we clicked so well it almost hurt. We both are a bit standoffish, but there is definite chemistry involved. All of my past relationships have devolved into dysfunctional quagmires and she fears getting too close before leaving again for law school. I lay myself humbly before you, dear fellow followers of the Almighty Cecil Adams, and welcome any advise, comments, etc. that you are willing to give.
dpfoody, I’d say go for it. There once was a woman that I could have laid it all on the line for, and I refused. I’ve since come to realize that I’ll never know love like that again, and if I ever had another chance, there’s absolutely nothing I wouldn’t do to hang on to her.
Met him, fell in love, he seemed to like me, too. I was too shy to do anything about it, went on vacation and he met somebody else. He has since broken off with her, but somehow the window of opportunity seems to have passed.
Don’t know about best, but I let the first real one slip away. We were together two years, then had a fight and broke up. That Friday night I’m sittin’ in a bar drowning my sorrows and her older sister walks up and says :" Hey, let’s dance!"
Want to really burn a bridge? Go on one of those three day Lost Weekends**[sup]TM**[/sup] with your ex’s sister. You won’t be reconciling, I guarantee.
I think I just did, actually. About four hours ago. Now I’m sitting here with nothing but my headphones and a fresh pack of cigarettes, wondering what the hell I did.
Einmon, I know what you mean about windows of opportunity. Mine just got boarded shut and the house bulldozed.
Wow, my first very own lifelong regret, at the ripe ole age of 24. Hope I don’t have more of these, 'cause they kinda sting.
To be more precise, she valued her manic highs so much that she stopped taking medication. Gradually her old paranoia returned and she stopped talking to her friends, including me. It’s a pity – I knew her for many years and it’s hard to imagine loving someone else that does not possess her huge intelligence and perspicacity.
Settling for someone with less fascination and more predictability is not a bad thing, I tell myself.
I have to agree. What, really, do you have to lose? If you lay it on the line and she turns you down, you’ll have closure. And if she accepts, well, maybe you’ll tast the reward stored up “for those who dare to reach.”
But if you don’t go for it, you’ll just sit and wonder, maybe for a long, long time, what might’ve been.
Don’t be a shmuck. GO for it.
Actually, I slipped away, back to the other side of the world. Now I’m back in the same hemisphere, thinking about her every day… I suspect she’d take me back in a second, but the combination of circumstances dictate that I have to Never See Her Again.
