How It Could Have Ended

"S"

For both of them, it was their year of turning 42 -- y'know, the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. They met online via a social site, and although they had dozens of friends in common, they had never met in person. She had inquired with a mutual friend about him once, wondering who the guy was who was always in their pictures.

She: "Does he ever come visit here? Strange that I've never met him."
Friend: "You don't want to meet him right now. He's in a weird place."

But a couple of years later (2.5 to be exact), she received a friend request from him seemingly out of the blue. And, of course, she accepted immediately and discovering that the new friendship was punctuated by some extra fun timing:

Months went by without them interacting very much -- each living their own lives in their own respective corners of the country. Then one day, he inquired which dating site she was using, so he could give it a try. After filling things out fully, lo and behold it turned out they were a match. A very, very high match. The highest match for each other in a 500-mile radius, in fact! 

Although that was quite amusing, and they did learn that had many things in common and enjoyed conversing a bit, nothing sparked up from there because of the distance. That is, until the weekend that he came to visit the aforementioned mutual friend.

There was an electrical "ZING!" when she hugged him, and she was immediately filled with the feeling that he was the "imaginary boyfriend" she'd been building in her mind for so long. She had to keep from looking at him all night for fear that people would know. She was embarrassed, but also excited.

Although they kept in touch via that social network, she didn't see him again for a couple more months, when he arrived at the same mutual friend's house for an evening of quirky yacht rock. This time, everyone around them felt the chemistry, and some even thought they were already a couple.

Because of the distance, it wasn't until a couple weeks later that they got to have their first date. It lasted all day and all night, and left her all spinny and aflutter! She immediately schemed up their next rendezvous: a small town midway between the two of them in the middle of nowheresville. It didn't matter that the town seemed stuck in a Twilight Zone timewarp -- the were exploring together.

And that set the tone for their relationship. She would drive to see him, or he would drive to see her (more often), and they would have adventures together. It was a glorious time for both of them, filled with exploration, excitation, laughter and good vibrations (*wink*).

They planned that he would move to be with her, although he eventually admitted that change freaked him out. She heard him say that and immediately wished away the words -- it was going too well to have that kind of hiccup!

About a year into the glorious relationship, she started to hatch a plan. Sure, he'd been a little squirrelly and secretive lately -- but she hoped that he was just hatching his own plan. There was a crazy good airline ticket special: But one ticket and a companion flies free! And the cost of flights going to Vegas were unbelievably good.

She thought: What if I get us tickets to Vegas for Christmas, where I ask him to marry me! And what if I set it up with one of the kooky wedding chapels to have a ceremony presided over by Elvis or Dracula or Dracula Elvis or Godzilla or whatever fun thing they're offering!

Or this 100% authentic KISS wedding in Vegas.

And without further hesitation, she booked those airline tickets and that chapel. And then she waited until the big day. As the weeks wore on and the holiday grew closer, she began to get nervous. He was still acting secretive and squirrelly, and she couldn't tell how he was feeling anymore. One sleepless night, it just didn't feel right to continue, so she decided to cancel the plans... 

...Then the next morning, she realized that those fears and doubts were just her brain being silly. They'd been so in sync together that maybe they were both planning an amazing surprise for the other. Maybe he was being secretive for a really awesome reason. She kept her wacky Vegas proposal plan and took off to see him for Christmas.

When she arrived at his house, she confided that she almost didn't come, for fear that his recent distance was a bad sign. Not wanting her to feel bad for a second longer, he decided to give his Christmas gift to her early. It was a ring ... nothing fancy, but an antique that he'd been doing extra writing on the side to save up for (hence the secretive distance).

As she said yes (of course she said yes!) through laughter and happy tears, she told him that he now had to open his gift early, too. Inside he found those two tickets to Vegas, with the flight leaving in the morning. She also pulled out the second surprise: the goofy chapel reservation.

The giddy pair had the most uproarious time Vegas could legally offer, and by now you've seen that video of their wedding that everyone was sharing a while back.

Within a few months of their wedding trip, he had packed up his belongings and moved north to settle in with her. Due to budget cutbacks, his beloved job that he left behind was being filled by someone with lesser education than himself, so he felt he was making a good decision to come up to the big(ger) city for better job prospects.

And, of course, the two of them continue to have adventures together to this day.