THE BROKEN ENGAGEMENT

Her cell phone just will not stop ringing!   She assumes that means David is trying to talk about this and she just wants it over.  What is the use talking, we aren’t even sure why we are splitting but it feels better than going ahead with a flawed wedding or building a life of uncertainty.  I need to do something!  Let folks know.  Send out a group text.  It is better this way than her telling each one of her friends individually.  She must do something.

Let’s see….who should be in the group?  ...I’d better include David so he will know who I’ve told.

Cynthia,   Josh,  Nola, My Father,  Grace, David

Ok here goes.   

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Hello everyone,  

This is terribly hard to do, terribly hard to say, but easier if I just get it over with!  

David and I have broken off our engagement!   All plans will be cancelled!   

That’s all I really know for sure just now!   I love you all.   I hate this mess!   Sorry!

Love Kim

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Cynthia (Kim’s best friend and soon to be Maid of Honor) hears the tone for a new text.  She grabs up her phone and reads the brief message.  Her fingers fly over the keys….words like,  so so sorry,  I’m so crying for you,  I’m here for you,  you must be broken hearted!   You need to tell me all about what happened!    Oh my poor poor sad friend!  Words of sympathy flow from her fingertips.  SEND.  She sits in a moment of silence and then goes to get a bottle of water from the fridge.   With a large sigh, she begins to play over in her mind each time there was a moment when she was sure she would have been better with David.  She felt she read him better.  She understood his moods.   She often felt Kim didn’t think of his needs enough.  If David had been hers,  his needs would have been paramount in her mind day and night.   Wonder what David will do now?  She is sure there was no other woman that had come between David and Kim.  I hope he will consider me his friend too,  not just Kim’s.  He will need a shoulder to cry on,  it could be mine!

Josh (David’s best friend and soon to be Best Man)  is next to read the text. ... in his mind it’s like a celebration!  Well it’s about time he got his shit together!  She was way too bossy with him,  like she was a queen or something!  I knew from the beginning she loved herself more than she loved him!   Wow!  Over!  That is pure cool!   I have been tired of his stock answer….”I’ll have to check with Kim” before he could even stop after work for a drink.   Nope….he hasn’t been his own man for a long long time!  Guess I should be wondering what happened, but does it really matter,  he is free to check out some new talent,  hell, maybe I should be checking out something new too.  Hmm?  I wonder how he is taking all this,  guess I’d better call him,  try to feel bad for him.  Am I that  good an actor?   I don’t feel bad at all.

When Nola (Josh’s girlfriend and part of the friends group) reads the text she immediately tries to think how she can get to the bottom of the problem.  Maybe she can fix things for them?  She had no idea there was a problem.  This is going to be so hard on the group.  How will she be able to sympathize with both of them without looking like a phony.  But the group is so good together.  They have fun, love the same clubs, the same trips and activities.   “On my gosh!” Is all she can think of, the sadness when the group splits up.  She and Josh haven’t been on a solo date in a very long time.  Hmmm?  Maybe she liked the group better than Josh alone, she really can’t remember.  Somewhere in the back of her mind she has a nagging thought that she should be wondering how Kim is taking all of this.  Maybe it was Kim’s idea?   She couldn’t imagine it was David’s idea but really,  really, she only knows them as they are part of the group!

Kim’s father hears the ding that says “TEXT MESSAGE”.   He is immediately annoyed!  “Why can’t people just pick up the stupid phone and call you?”  Well it will have to wait until after the news.  He flips open his phone just to see who the text is from.  Clicks it closed again with the plans to call Kim after the news.  If it is “important” she will call or text again.  Back to the drone of the TV news.  Soon he is asleep and the text all but forgotten.  Finally waking up with a cramp in his leg from sitting too long he heads for bed.   Finally settling in with the duvet up to his chin, he remembers the text.   Reaches for his phone on the night table and flips it open.  Text message...Kim….reading with squinting eyes as he really needs his glasses, he finally gets the gist of the message.   Now his face breaks into a broad smile.   Best news in a month of Sundays!   That kid wasn’t dry behind the ears yet!  His Kim could do much better!   Someone a bit older, settled.   Well well well!   Good news but he wonders,  at last, what happened!  Then he feels anger!  If that guy hurt his Kim he will make him very sorry!   Well, whatever it is,  he will support Kim,  send her on a little vacation or ??  Well something to make her smile again!  Smile?   I wonder if she is crying?   Oh my poor baby!  Well too late to call any more tonight.

Grace (Kim’s sister) sees a text from her sister.  All she can think is “What now?”  “Such a demanding little drama queen!”   “One big attention demanding crisis after another!”   With a large sigh, she reads the text!   Well crap!  She wonders what happened, she wonders who pulled the plug?  They really deserved each other, both Kim and David were spoiled last children and had advantages their older siblings had not enjoyed.  She knows she loves her sister but still can’t muster up too much sympathy or concern.  Curiosity, well that was another thing all together!  Who is breaking up with whom?   Is there another man or woman?  Did she catch him being unfaithful?   Has she found something more interesting or with more money?  “O.K., just stop it Grace!”  “You know you are secretly pleased as she is two years younger and you are still looking with no real prospects!”  Yes stop, it would be so easy to become bitter….Time to think like a sister not a shrew! 

David had been sitting in his car by the lake,  he had been calling Kim but she wasn’t picking up, and then his phone announced a text.  He looked and was surprised Kim was telling everyone, all at once, no discussion or second thoughts!  For the first time he realized this was real!  Now his eyes mist up and he feels so alone.  He wonders what they could have done differently?   He wonders if this was his fault?   He wonders what one thing precipitated this?  He just has so many questions!  Now he wonders what Kim must be feeling?   Kim, such a sweet girl in a demanding sort of way!  Well she never really demanded she just wheedled her way into everything she wanted.   Well I guess maybe I do that too.  He sighs a big deep sigh and then he asks himself this one big question,  “Why do I feel like I just got the “Get Out Of Jail Free” card in monopoly?”  Now he almost laughs,  he realizes he is relieved.  Really relieved!   He is in fact FREE!  And it feels good,  he wants to drink beer and sit in the sports bar and yell for a team he cares nothing about!   Wow!  Really close call!

As Kim is getting ready for bed,  she sits in front of her mirror brushing her long hair and feeling so very sad.  Why didn’t she fix the things that were wrong long ago, talk to David, try to work out the thing they both did that were hurtful ,  well maybe they weren’t hurtful but they weren’t helpful.  They loved playing together but life is more than a big game.  Money, family, jobs, all of it, the everyday stuff.  Thinking now about how she hates his taste in shirts,  how could they ever agree on bedroom drapes or even a shower curtain.  What made her think they were ready to settle down.  Babies?   Apartment?   Big stuff!   Even with all that being said, she knew she must be heart broken!  She had to be heartbroken!  How else should she feel except heartbroken?   Well, she knew she was heartbroken but not as heart broken as she was when she broke up with her first serious boyfriend in college!  She was,  she really was heartbroken, but not as heartbroken as when she broke up with her high school boyfriend,  he was her first and only “real” love,  well so far anyway!