Revisionist Romance Tales

A few days ago I wrote about married men who invest too much energy in women other than their wives...  I was thinking about what I wrote, and although it makes a better story the way I told it, it isn't exactly historically accurate.  The ex-boyfriend who contacted me during a period of unhappiness with his wife- well, things weren't working out between the two of us at the point that he met her, so she shouldn't be blamed for anything.  She was really just a catalyst for the inevitable.  I think that's how it usually happens when relationships go bad...  One person meets someone else, and it speeds along a dissolution that was bound to happen anyway.  I thought this man was great, but traveling together showed each of us how different we were.  He was just a bit too spontaneous for my taste, and I probably seemed too dull (yeah, whatever!).  I would have enjoyed staying friends with him, and briefly we were in fact still in touch.  After he began seeing the "skydiver" (I use the term loosely!)  he actually spent a few hours with me at the fire station where he worked and helped me prepare for the physical portion of the exam to become a California state park ranger...  a tough exam that I managed to pass when I took it a few months later (so thank you for that, H)!

I was, however, annoyed when he contacted me out of the blue after marrying and having two kids.  It reminds me of a scene from Bridget Jones Diary (one of my Christmas presents this year, so it's fresh in my mind!)...  At the end of the movie, Bridget has started a relationship with the sedate lawyer played by Colin Firth, when along comes the fun-loving Hugh Grant character who spurned her earlier in the movie...  He has had a change of heart, and is professing his love, and when she tries to figure out what happened, he says to her, "If  I can't make it with you, I can't make it with anyone!"  Luckily, Bridget comes to her senses and runs after Colin Firth.  Who wants to be the woman of last resort?  The one who will do in a pinch, or is a sure thing because her expectations aren't all that high??  That was how hearing from this old love made me feel- I wasn't the right woman a few years earlier, but when he was lonely and frustrated, I was the go-to girl?  I don't think so :-)  I'm not sure what he was looking for...  words of encouragement to work on his marriage (which is what I gave him)?  A one night stand?  A rebound relationship?  Who knows.  With any luck, he did work on things.  Two failed marriages is not a good record for anyone to have.