August 1995

“She’s not good enough for you,” my friend’s wife, Melissa, had told me when I brought my former girlfriend to their apartment about nine months ago.

Honestly, that girl was my first real girlfriend. I wasn’t that popular in high school, and I always came across as weird back then (I probably was, in retrospect... ).

Six months ago, I had ended things with that former girlfriend. I thought I was going to marry that girl (she doesn’t deserve to be named). Then, the late nights at her work, and how she used to hide her phone from me, started to add up. That girl showed up at my work place, smiling like she’d done nothing unusual. My coworkers glared at her like they wanted to blast her for likely cheating on me, but they remained silent. I ended things with her that week.

My boss got me into the Employee Assistance Program quickly, a program through work that offered counseling to employees at minimal cost (the company picked up the rest), because she could see my despair at the end of the relationship. Thankfully, I had managed to keep my feelings from interfering with my job performance. My grief only became visible when I thought no one could see or hear me.

“This is the girl I’m going to introduce you to...” Melissa, said as she handed me a picture a few weeks ago. “We met each other while Greg and I were in college.”

Melissa’s husband – Greg – worked with me. She often brought their three-year-old son, Jayden, to visit his father at his job. He was a cute kid, and seemed genuinely interested in his dad’s job. I looked at the photo, and my breath caught. The picture was of Melissa and a beautiful brunette with long, permed hair and brown eyes while at a wedding together.

’Don’t screw this up... ‘ I told myself as Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” played in my head.

The day of the blind date I drove to Melissa and Greg’s apartment, making sure that I wouldn’t be late. I suppose I shouldn’t have been driving so fast; the police officer gave me a break when I told him where I was headed. When I finally reached their apartment and walked in, Jayden came running over. I knelt, and wrapped him in a huge hug. When I finally looked up, Melissa stood next to Jane, the girl she was going to introduce me to, and they both smiled at me.