Stop That Wedding!

       Jessica Baker was sitting at her kitchen counter drinking a cup of Chamomile tea, when a mutual friend, Charles Huntington, of her and her ex, called her and said that her ex was getting married. Charles told her that if she still loved him, that she needed to tell him before it really was too late. That he knows that she and Devin still love each other and belonged together. It was time for her to stop sitting by, because Devin wasn’t going to come after her, since she was the one that walked away. She sat there for what seemed like hours balling her eyes out.

She couldn’t understand, or remember for the life of her right now what had went wrong. He was the love of her life. All she ever wanted was to spend the rest of her life with him. As she sat on her couch trying to remember why they had broke up, she remembered that when he got that football scholarship that had him going to the Midwest she would have followed him anywhere. But the college where she got accepted was nowhere near the same part of the country as his. He begged her to come with him. He told her that she could find a college in the area, even if it was a small college, she could always transfer later. He just needed her to stand beside him as he went for his dream of playing in the NFL. That was six years ago. He did make his dream come true and had been playing in the NFL for the last two years for the Dallas Cowboys, their favorite team.

Through the last two years, she had gone to see several games, but never tried to reach out to him. She knew he was dating someone and she wasn’t the type of person who would break up a relationship. But now she wished she would have reached out. What if he still loved her as much as she still loved him?

            She finally just fell asleep from pure exhaustion from crying so much. As she was sleeping, she had a vision of her stopping the wedding. 

When she woke up, she knew that she had to do something. She didn’t want to be that dramatic, but after that dream, her attitude was that she would do whatever she had to do to at least let him know that she still loved him. After that the ball was in his court and she would understand if he lost it on her, but she couldn’t spend the rest of her life wondering ‘what if’.

She got off the couch and called Charles back and told him that she needed to see Devin. 

“Charles, you were right and I need to talk to him. How can I get to him before the wedding? I really don’t want to bust up in the wedding!” she asked.

“It’s about damn time Jessica! Well, I am flying to Dallas three days early. I will send you my flight information and you can book the same flight and we can go from there,” he replied.

“Okay, send me the information now. I am going to put in for the time off from work. I can’t even believe he’s getting married in a week,” she said.

“I know. I wasn’t sure if I should contact you or not, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that you needed to know and that way you could make your own decision on what, if anything, you wanted to do about it,” he said.

“Well, thank you Charles. I really appreciate you telling me. I will book that flight tonight,” she replied.

They hung up and she checked her email where he was forwarding his flight information to her. Then she put in from her office laptop to take the time off. She already knew that if this ended up the way she wanted, she wouldn’t be coming back to that job.

Three days later she met Charles at the airport and they boarded their fight to Dallas.

“What is our game plan? How am I going to get to see him before the wedding?” she asked.

“We are having dinner tonight. Let me talk to him first and let him know you are here and wanting to talk to him,” he said.

After they checked into their hotel, she tried to relax and couldn’t. She just sat it the room staring at the walls and waiting on Charles to call.

Finally, her phone rang and it was Charles.

“Hey Charles. What did he say?” she asked.

“Well, at first, he said you had some nerve coming here like this and that he never wanted to see you again. About an hour and a half and a few drinks later, he said he would come up to your room. He should be knocking momentarily,” he said. 

And then the knock happened.

“He’s here. I will fill you in later,” she said.

            She got up and opened the door to her room. There he stood, staring at her; her high school sweetheart, the love of her life and her soulmate.

            “Devin,” she said, “Come in. I am so happy you came to talk.”

            “Jessica,” he replied as he came inside and walked to the couch, “I don’t even know why I am here. You ghosted me after high school. You were the one constant in my life. There is no one in this world I love more than you, but you hurt me. And now, now you want to come back into my life. Why now?”

            “I know and I am so sorry. I came out here to see you several times through the years, but either never had the courage to follow through or you were dating someone. When we went off to college, I told you I wanted to still be together. I said we could work though the four year long distant relationship, but you were so angry that I wasn’t coming that you didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. Devin, I have never stopped loving you. Hell, I haven’t even been in a relationship since you. I need you to know this. I need you to understand that you have always had my heart and still do. I love you just as much today as I did the day we left for college,” she said.

            “Damn it Jessica! You piss me off so bad. I didn’t think we would make the long distant relationship work. I figured it was better to just say goodbye then. And now you are standing here three days before my wedding telling me that you messed up. That you still love me and what, you want me to just drop everything for you when you wouldn’t drop everything for me?” he said in an angry tone.

            “I don’t know what to expect. All I know is that I didn’t want anymore regrets in my life and didn’t want to spend it the rest of it in more regret and wondering ‘what if’,” she said as she got closer to him leaned forward and said, “I love you”, right before she kissed him.

            At first he just stood there and didn’t respond. As she continued to kiss him, he finally started kissing her back. Then he picked her up and laid her down on the bed. The continued to kiss passionately until he finally broke it off, leaned up and stared at her for a few seconds before saying, “Damn Jessica, I love you more than anything, still. You are the love of my life.”

            Then he started undressing them both and made love to her the rest of the night and into the morning.

            When they woke up, she was still in his arms. He looked at her and said, “I love you, but are you ready to give it all up for me this time? Are you going to give up your job and home and move here with me, because I won’t give it all up if your not going to be here.”

            “Yes, I will give it all up and move here to be with you. I won’t make the same mistake again,” she said.

            “Then I have to go and handle this other situation. I will be back later,” he said as he kissed her and got up.

            When he left, she resigned from her job, called a realtor to start the process of selling her house. Then she called Charles and filled him in.

            Five hours later there was a knock at the door. When she opened it, he stood there looking like beat down. 

            “Hey,” she said. “Come in.”

            He walked in and said, “I just broke off the wedding and the relationship. She didn’t take it to well, especially since I had told her how you broke my heart. But there is no way I can marry her if you are standing her telling me that you are going to give it all up this time. I know you well enough to know that you wouldn’t say it if you didn’t mean it. And I can’t deny that I am still madly in love with you and that kind of love doesn’t go away.”

            She gave him a hug and said, “I am not going anywhere, except to pack up my house. I love you with all of my heart. I resigned from work today and called a realtor to start the process to sell my house.

            “Then lets go ahead and get you out of this hotel and back to our house. When I bought the house, all I thought about was all of those conversations we had about what our home would be like if I made it to the NFL. So, I bought exactly what we wanted and anything that wasn’t already the way we had discussed it, I renovated it. I guess deep down I always knew you would come back,” he said.

            From that moment, they left for their house and by the end of the month they were married. Three months after that they were expecting their first child.