bookish love

Dammit, every time I read a book with any kind of relationship plot, the characters meet cute on campus, and never leave each other's side. In the book I finished this morning, there were two couples who did so, and to add salt, they both met on the campus where I went to grad school.

My ex-fiance and I met cute, but not on campus, and he was not the guy for me. I have the odd but good fortune that he married an acquaintance, so I get to see what he is like as a middle-aged husband and father. And every time I do see him, I am glad we didn't marry. He is a sweet, great guy, and they are fabulous and happy together, and I would have run screaming long ago if that were me.

I met George, the oft-alluded-to one that got away, on campus when we were undergrads, but the meet-cute wasn't until grad school, on that very same literary campus as this morning's book. Every day I continue to think I made a mistake in letting him go, that I was blind not to see that he loved me and was just what I was looking for. Being back in Boston and seeing our old haunts just gives me constant reminders. And since I haven't seen him in almost ten years, I have no evidence to contradict my memory's belief that he is perfect.

So instead, I wrote the Lumberjack and told him that I missed him and to hurry home. And here I was supposed to be ignoring him. At least I didn't call. E-mail is so unromantic...