So, I have to give a little history before I can get to the actual meeting and subsequent years...And I'll apologize in advance because it's a LONG story!
When I was 14 years old, my best friend's family decided to move to New Hampshire. This was back in the early 90's and the whole internet thing had not gotten off the ground quite yet, so this was a pretty devastating move for two teenage girls
Nevertheless, we wrote letters constantly and once a month our families would let us talk on the phone. In 1994, when I was 16 and she was 17, she wrote me a long letter about this older guy she had met named Geoff. I got glowing letters about how happy she was, how well he treated her and how much she thought we'd get along because the two of us were so much alike. She eventually got pregnant and moved in with him and they had a little boy. Since I was still in high school, our communications started lessening, as things do when friends lead very different lives. When their son was about a year old, she broke up with Geoff and moved back in with her family. At this point, I was in my first year of college and had a job and could afford to take a trip up to visit her. During my winter break in 1996 my friend Mike and I flew up to NH to visit for 2 weeks. By this point of course, Geoff was the enemy who fought her for (equal) custody of their son and just wouldn't go away (her words), and I, as her best friend, agreed with her.
My friend had to work some of the days we were there and she asked Geoff as a favor to take me and our other friend out for the day. It was a day he had their son, so she really wanted us to go with him so we could report back on how her son was doing. Although she hated him, she still told me that she thought he & I would get along and even suggested that I flirt with him because she had a new boyfriend by then and he didn't like her ex becase he thught Geoff was still in love with her. I laughed at this but agreed to go hang out with him for the day so we weren't stuck in the house.
When Geoff showed up to pick us up, he introduced himself and pretty straight forwardly said 'I know you guys have heard lots of stuff about me and probably hate me, but all I ask is that you give me the chance to maybe show you I'm not quite that bad of a guy". I thought to myself, this is really a good guy, who else would agree to take around his ex's friends for the day, when he doesn't even know them? Of course I thought he was kind of cute but I pushed that away bcause he was still technically the enemy
He took us around to a few places, but basically he & I spent the entire time talking while Mike just looked bored!
Since my friend was also working the following day, he asked if we wanted to come and hang out the next day as well. Mike decided to stay at the house & do manly mr. fix it stuff and I agreed to go and hang out again. While Geoff and I were out with their son, he ran into some one he knew that he hadn't seen in a long time who asked him if his son & I were his family. Geoff & I laughed and just said no, we're just friends. It hit me at that moment, that I didn't want to be just friends with him. I could see myself with him. And it freaked me out because this was my best friend's ex. We were leaving a few days later so when he dropped me off, he gave me a big hug, told me to have a safe trip home and that it had been nice to meet me and finally get to know the girl his ex had been talking about for years.
After I flew back home to FL, my best friend and I were talking and she said Geoff had asked about me. She thought this was great - she could push him off on me and I would keep him from "bugging" her all the time. As this was years ago I don't remember who got who's phone number first but he called me on the phone and we talked for hours. Our phone bills got ridiculously expensive because we would stay on the phone all night. A few weeks in, Geoff confessed that he thought he was falling for me, and he didn't know how I felt about it but he wanted to know if it was possible that I felt something too? At this point, I was full blown in love but still feelng guilty about it. When I talked to my best friend and told her how I was feeling & how Geoff was feeling - she changed. All of the sudden, she hated the thought of us together and how could I betray her this way? I apologized over and over again - I hadn't meant for this to happen. Why would I want to fall in love with someone 1500 miles away who also happened to be a friend's ex?? I even said I would stop talking to him if that meant it woud save our friendship. She wouldn't listen and basically told me our friendship was over. I called Geoff & told him we couldn't talk anymore & why but he managed to calm me down. After several more conversations, we agreed that what we felt couldn't be ignored and we needed to try and make it work out. So we did the distance for about a year. I went up the following year to visit him for a few weeks after Christmas, and not long after I got there, we broke up. He thought I was too young at 19 and that I was too close to my family in FL to leave and move up there. It was the best and worst two weeks of my life. I was so happy to finally be with him, as he had become my best friend but I was devastated because I was in love with him and thought he didn't love me back.
We remained best of friends. A year after we split up, I got enaged to another man, and Geoff sent his congratulations. Later he told me that it was then that he finally decided he needed to start dating other people since I had obviously moved on. When that relationship failed, I turned to Geoff who listened to me cry. In 2001, I became involved with my son's father and eventually got pregnant. My son's father and I had a very rocky relationship and Geoff was always there to listen. When my son was 2 years old, Geoff and I drifted apart for a little while. He had met a woman who was extremely jealous and felt threatened by every female Geoff had ever known - including me who was still 1500 miles away and in my own relationship. She deleted all of his contacts and changed their phone number. I was upset of course, but being a mother and in a bad relationship, I barely had time to do anything other than try and raise my son and keep my family together.
In 2006, my ex & I were still together but barely. I had this sudden urge to talk with Geoff but I had no contact information for him any longer. I found his dad online and sent him an email (I had met his dad when I went to visit so it wasn't like I emailed a total stranger) and asked him to give Geoff my contact information because I wanted to see how he was doing. I didn't hear anything for a few months and then one day, I received an email from Geoff. He and his fiancee had split up and it was my turn to listen as he had for me so many times. We picked back up like there had been no break. By the end of 2008/early 2009, my ex and I were done and Geoff and I began talking even more frequently. On new year's eve 2009, I promised Geoff that I would call him at midnight so we could ring in the hew year together. By midnight, I was a bit drunk but I remembered to call him. During that conversation I told him that he was the great unknown in my life. The big question mark, that if I had done things differently and moved to NH, what would my life had been like? He admitted that his biggest regret was breaking up with me and that if he could have done it all over, he would have begged me to stay and not go back to FL. Our friendship began to change after that call. We spoke even more regularly on the phone or via text messages. Ironically, my ex best friend is now living in FL (but nowhere near me), and he has custody of their son so his son comes down to FL and spends the summer here. She & I are fine now, not as close obviously, but we're friends on facebook and there's no animosity any longer. This summer, I convinced him instead of taking his vacation week and staying at home by himself, he should come to FL and visit me. He had promised when I left back in 1997 that the next visit he would come here, but never had in all this time. So he bought the tickets and planned to be here 6/26. At this point, he was coming as my friend.
I was so nervous before he got here. It had been 13 years after all I was older and life had been stressful. I wasn't the same girl I had once been. He was nervous too but has this amazing ability to never show it. I dropped my son off with a family member to stay the night the day of his arrival because he was arriving in the evening and I thought after a plane trip all day, a nice quiet evening would be appreciated. As soon as I saw him at the airport, I realized I had never really been out of love with him. We hugged for a super long time and finally made it to my car to drive back to my house. By the time we got back to my house, any nerves or fears about it being awkward were gone. He & I ended up sitting on my couch watching tv, and I laid my head on his lap and we held hands for a long time. Eventually we got up to go into the kitchen to grab a drink and he leaned in and kissed me. He admitted that he had no intention of doing that - he really did think we were just going to be friends but that he couldn't hide it any longer. He was in love with me, and always had been. Of course I kissed him right back and told him how I'd always been in love with him too. So here we are - 13 years later...My family adores him, my son loves him, and I'm happy to be with the man I always wanted to be with
When I was 14 years old, my best friend's family decided to move to New Hampshire. This was back in the early 90's and the whole internet thing had not gotten off the ground quite yet, so this was a pretty devastating move for two teenage girls
Nevertheless, we wrote letters constantly and once a month our families would let us talk on the phone. In 1994, when I was 16 and she was 17, she wrote me a long letter about this older guy she had met named Geoff. I got glowing letters about how happy she was, how well he treated her and how much she thought we'd get along because the two of us were so much alike. She eventually got pregnant and moved in with him and they had a little boy. Since I was still in high school, our communications started lessening, as things do when friends lead very different lives. When their son was about a year old, she broke up with Geoff and moved back in with her family. At this point, I was in my first year of college and had a job and could afford to take a trip up to visit her. During my winter break in 1996 my friend Mike and I flew up to NH to visit for 2 weeks. By this point of course, Geoff was the enemy who fought her for (equal) custody of their son and just wouldn't go away (her words), and I, as her best friend, agreed with her. My friend had to work some of the days we were there and she asked Geoff as a favor to take me and our other friend out for the day. It was a day he had their son, so she really wanted us to go with him so we could report back on how her son was doing. Although she hated him, she still told me that she thought he & I would get along and even suggested that I flirt with him because she had a new boyfriend by then and he didn't like her ex becase he thught Geoff was still in love with her. I laughed at this but agreed to go hang out with him for the day so we weren't stuck in the house.
When Geoff showed up to pick us up, he introduced himself and pretty straight forwardly said 'I know you guys have heard lots of stuff about me and probably hate me, but all I ask is that you give me the chance to maybe show you I'm not quite that bad of a guy". I thought to myself, this is really a good guy, who else would agree to take around his ex's friends for the day, when he doesn't even know them? Of course I thought he was kind of cute but I pushed that away bcause he was still technically the enemy
He took us around to a few places, but basically he & I spent the entire time talking while Mike just looked bored! Since my friend was also working the following day, he asked if we wanted to come and hang out the next day as well. Mike decided to stay at the house & do manly mr. fix it stuff and I agreed to go and hang out again. While Geoff and I were out with their son, he ran into some one he knew that he hadn't seen in a long time who asked him if his son & I were his family. Geoff & I laughed and just said no, we're just friends. It hit me at that moment, that I didn't want to be just friends with him. I could see myself with him. And it freaked me out because this was my best friend's ex. We were leaving a few days later so when he dropped me off, he gave me a big hug, told me to have a safe trip home and that it had been nice to meet me and finally get to know the girl his ex had been talking about for years.
After I flew back home to FL, my best friend and I were talking and she said Geoff had asked about me. She thought this was great - she could push him off on me and I would keep him from "bugging" her all the time. As this was years ago I don't remember who got who's phone number first but he called me on the phone and we talked for hours. Our phone bills got ridiculously expensive because we would stay on the phone all night. A few weeks in, Geoff confessed that he thought he was falling for me, and he didn't know how I felt about it but he wanted to know if it was possible that I felt something too? At this point, I was full blown in love but still feelng guilty about it. When I talked to my best friend and told her how I was feeling & how Geoff was feeling - she changed. All of the sudden, she hated the thought of us together and how could I betray her this way? I apologized over and over again - I hadn't meant for this to happen. Why would I want to fall in love with someone 1500 miles away who also happened to be a friend's ex?? I even said I would stop talking to him if that meant it woud save our friendship. She wouldn't listen and basically told me our friendship was over. I called Geoff & told him we couldn't talk anymore & why but he managed to calm me down. After several more conversations, we agreed that what we felt couldn't be ignored and we needed to try and make it work out. So we did the distance for about a year. I went up the following year to visit him for a few weeks after Christmas, and not long after I got there, we broke up. He thought I was too young at 19 and that I was too close to my family in FL to leave and move up there. It was the best and worst two weeks of my life. I was so happy to finally be with him, as he had become my best friend but I was devastated because I was in love with him and thought he didn't love me back.
We remained best of friends. A year after we split up, I got enaged to another man, and Geoff sent his congratulations. Later he told me that it was then that he finally decided he needed to start dating other people since I had obviously moved on. When that relationship failed, I turned to Geoff who listened to me cry. In 2001, I became involved with my son's father and eventually got pregnant. My son's father and I had a very rocky relationship and Geoff was always there to listen. When my son was 2 years old, Geoff and I drifted apart for a little while. He had met a woman who was extremely jealous and felt threatened by every female Geoff had ever known - including me who was still 1500 miles away and in my own relationship. She deleted all of his contacts and changed their phone number. I was upset of course, but being a mother and in a bad relationship, I barely had time to do anything other than try and raise my son and keep my family together.
In 2006, my ex & I were still together but barely. I had this sudden urge to talk with Geoff but I had no contact information for him any longer. I found his dad online and sent him an email (I had met his dad when I went to visit so it wasn't like I emailed a total stranger) and asked him to give Geoff my contact information because I wanted to see how he was doing. I didn't hear anything for a few months and then one day, I received an email from Geoff. He and his fiancee had split up and it was my turn to listen as he had for me so many times. We picked back up like there had been no break. By the end of 2008/early 2009, my ex and I were done and Geoff and I began talking even more frequently. On new year's eve 2009, I promised Geoff that I would call him at midnight so we could ring in the hew year together. By midnight, I was a bit drunk but I remembered to call him. During that conversation I told him that he was the great unknown in my life. The big question mark, that if I had done things differently and moved to NH, what would my life had been like? He admitted that his biggest regret was breaking up with me and that if he could have done it all over, he would have begged me to stay and not go back to FL. Our friendship began to change after that call. We spoke even more regularly on the phone or via text messages. Ironically, my ex best friend is now living in FL (but nowhere near me), and he has custody of their son so his son comes down to FL and spends the summer here. She & I are fine now, not as close obviously, but we're friends on facebook and there's no animosity any longer. This summer, I convinced him instead of taking his vacation week and staying at home by himself, he should come to FL and visit me. He had promised when I left back in 1997 that the next visit he would come here, but never had in all this time. So he bought the tickets and planned to be here 6/26. At this point, he was coming as my friend.
I was so nervous before he got here. It had been 13 years after all I was older and life had been stressful. I wasn't the same girl I had once been. He was nervous too but has this amazing ability to never show it. I dropped my son off with a family member to stay the night the day of his arrival because he was arriving in the evening and I thought after a plane trip all day, a nice quiet evening would be appreciated. As soon as I saw him at the airport, I realized I had never really been out of love with him. We hugged for a super long time and finally made it to my car to drive back to my house. By the time we got back to my house, any nerves or fears about it being awkward were gone. He & I ended up sitting on my couch watching tv, and I laid my head on his lap and we held hands for a long time. Eventually we got up to go into the kitchen to grab a drink and he leaned in and kissed me. He admitted that he had no intention of doing that - he really did think we were just going to be friends but that he couldn't hide it any longer. He was in love with me, and always had been. Of course I kissed him right back and told him how I'd always been in love with him too. So here we are - 13 years later...My family adores him, my son loves him, and I'm happy to be with the man I always wanted to be with
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