Should be Day 223. Just an idea I had.
Jackie was sixteen when she met Danny, and it was a day she promised
herself she'd never forget. There was nothing extraordinary about his
looks, in fact he blended right in with a crowd, but how he looked at
her as they were paired up in history class made her feel like there was
much more to him than met the surface. She found out she was right as
she spent more time with him. He was her date to prom, and their
graduating class, along with their families, thought they would get
married within another two years. They got quite well together and were
entirely happy with one another.
That's why it
came as such as a surprise when Jackie came home one day, crying, to
tell her mother that she and Danny had broken up. Danny hadn't done
anything wrong. It was their career choices that forced to drive them
apart. Danny had joined the army instead of going to college as Jackie
had done. He intended on serving for just enough time to give him
benefits that would help him pay for college, but he didn't anticipate
he'd be relocated somewhere else, so soon. As for Jackie, she had an
opportunity to study abroad and take an internship job that was too good
to pass up. She knew they'd be too busy to maintain a long-distance
relationship, and Jackie hated to see the beautiful thing they had
together slowly deteriorate, so she broke it off before it happened.
Danny was crushed that she wasn't willing to try and thought maybe she
wasn't who he thought she was. He respected her wishes though and
slipped out of her life.
Time passed, and the
deep chasms in their hearts were slowly being repaired. Jackie started
dating again a couple years later, upon the insistence of her friends,
who didn't want to see her end up an old maid. Each relationship ended
with Jackie gently breaking it off because he wasn't Danny. None of
them made her feel the way he did. Plus, she secretly hoped that one
day he would call, and they would be together again. Her cell phone was
silent.
Eventually, Jackie came to point where she
completely let Danny go, and she was rewarded by meeting a great man
who three and a half years later became her husband. Jackie loved him
dearly, and they had three children. They were happy in their careers,
loved their family, and planned to retire in the countryside. Thus,
Jackie was devastated when she heard the news that her husband had been
involved in a car accident. She stayed by his hospital bedside for as
long as she could spare while he was in the coma. He died nine days
later. They had been married for twelve years and three days.
Jackie finished raising their kids with the help of her parents, but
she didn't get remarried. Her heart had suffered enough heartache, and
she had resigned herself to be a widow for the rest of her life. When
her kids had grown, she moved to a new city, devoted herself to her work
and grew to be fairly successful. She was in her forties now and was
content with the life she had made for herself.
Her world changed one day when an ordinary-looking man walked into her
office. He was of average height, slightly overweight (normal for
someone his age), and was half bald, but Jackie would have recognized
those brown eyes anywhere. Danny was even more shocked to see her.
They hugged like old friends, and with her permission, he took her to
dinner to catch up with each other. She found out that he had gotten
married a couple years earlier than she had, but his wife had died a few
years ago as well. He was in town on business for two weeks. Jackie
left with saying she hoped they could get together again before he left.
They met three more times before he left, and by that time Jackie felt
like Danny had never left those twenty-seven years ago. He promised to
keep in touch with her, and without admitting it, they were dating
long-distance for four months. Danny couldn't take the distance
between them though, and unwillingly to lose her again, he quit his job
and moved to be with her. They were married within the year.
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