Writers Cramp Contest: Taking the Plunge

                                  Taking the Plunge


"Damn it Mom, stop setting me up.  I have no intention of coming over to meet Bob on Sunday."  I slammed the phone down before she could say anything more.  I knew she meant well, but the men she invited to dinner to court me were always boring professional types.  The type of man with a good job but no personality.

I might be nearing thirty but I still wanted to hold out for someone fun.  Someone who made me laugh and filled my life with excitement.  I didn't have anything against the thought of a relationship or even marriage; I'd actually always assumed I would be married by this point in my life.  It's just that I didn't want to marry an accountant, I wanted to marry someone like...

"Brad!"  I was so shocked to see him it didn't occur to me to wonder how he had got inside my locked apartment.  "It's been forever, how have you been?"  I rushed at him to give him a hug.  Instead I passed right through him, tried to stop my momentum, tripped over the coffee table, and wound up sprawled on the floor.

"I've been dead, how have you been Angie?"  He had the most adorable grin that never failed to make me melt.

Summoning up my wits I managed to sputter out "Wha...?"

"I asked how have you been."

"No, before that."  I still was hopelessly confused; but, I'd at least managed to pick myself up.

"Oh that. Turns out BASE jumping from the summit of Everest wasn't that great of an idea."

"So, you're really dead? What are you doing here then?"

"What else? I'm here to get married like I promised."

I could still remember when we had said goodbye; it was right after our high school graduation.  Brad and I had been a couple as long as I could remember.  I'd always assumed we would go to college together and eventually wind up married.  Brad had other plans; he wanted to travel and 'see the world'.  My whole world felt like it had been shattered; I couldn't stop sobbing.  Brad held me and tried to comfort me; he promised on his very soul that he would come back and we would be married.

Naturally, I'd gotten over him. It had been a rough summer for me, but once I started meeting new guys in college, Brad no longer seemed like the one and only true love of my life.  Over the next decade or so, I'd gotten the occasional postcard detailing Brad's latest adventure.  It never occurred to me he might think of me as more than just an old friend.

"I don't what to say Brad, this is completely unexpected.  You'll have to give me time to think about it." It was all I could think to say.  I had no idea what to make of his 'proposal'.

Stilling grinning, he said "Sure Ang, take your time.  Be seeing you."  He disappeared and I was alone and deeply confused.

Over the next few weeks, Brad kept dropping by unexpectedly.  Despite our inability to touch, he made me feel like he did when we were teenagers.  I really felt like I'd found a man I could live the rest of my life with.  His persistence paid off when, on what felt like the hundredth time he'd asked, I said yes.

When I mentioned that there might be some problems getting married that he hadn't considered, he just said one word: "Vegas".  It turns out that he had also been communicating with some old friends who were going to help him pull this off.  Everything could be taken care of with a week's notice. 

Unfortunately, now that the initial euphoria of having Brad back again was wearing off, I started to take a long look at my life and what I'd done with it.  I also started to seriously consider what Brad might really want.  I didn't like what I realised.

The time had come to leave for Vegas and I knew what I had to tell him.  "I'm sorry Brad, I can't go through with this. You made your choice when you left me.  You lived your life the way you wanted to.  You don't get a do-over to see how things might have turned out."

Brad looked devastated. "I know" he said.  Then the grin reappeared, "But wasn't it fun to pretend what could have been for at least a little while?" 

I really wished I could have hugged him.  "Yeah, it was fun."

"Well, Ang, I guess this is our last goodbye.  I really do love you.  But, remember, you've made choices in your live also.  It's time to accept the consequences of those choices."

He disappeared for what I knew to be the final time.  "I love you too." I whispered into the air.

Now, I had a phone call to make.  "Hey Mom, it's Angie.  Look I'm really sorry for avoiding you. Is there any way you could invite Bob to dinner Sunday.  I'd really like to meet him."