Ok, the arch enemy story

 But I'm deleting this later. It’s not a fun story.

Ever since he was little, Mike's family would spend their summers up at Lake George with friends. The friends had two daughters, and the kids all became very close. Mike had a big crush on one of the girls, Amy (not her real name). Amy knew this and liked the attention, but wasn't really interested. In high school, he finally asked her out, and she laughed in his face. The families still hung out. Amy became a cheerleader and got a football boyfriend. Their senior year, just before prom, Amy and her boyfriend broke up, and Mike saw his chance. He asked her to prom, and she accepted! He changed his work schedule at the local grocery store and rented a tuxedo. On the night of the prom he got dressed up and arrived at her door with a corsage. Her mom answered, and told him that no, Amy wasn’t there - she made up with her boyfriend and had gone with him, instead. Mike went to the grocery store, put on an apron, and worked his regular shift, still in his tuxedo.

A few months later, he went to college. While exploring campus with some of the guys from his dorm, they spotted someone they didn't want to talk to and shoved their way into the nearest room to hide. It was my room. We all sat on the floor and chatted until the coast was clear. Mike laid down, and from where I was sitting I could only see his legs and feet, crossed at the ankles. Looking at those feet, I suddenly had the thought, "Oh, that's my husband," in the way you might look at a mountain and think, "Oh, I have to hike up that thing." But we clicked, and did everything together from then on. A couple weeks into school, while walking to the cafeteria, I narrowed my eyes at him and said, "Oh no, I like you." He shrugged and said, "I love you." And that was how easy it was.

A few weeks after that, I was riffling through some of the old notebooks on his desk and found terrible teenage love poetry. He told me about his childhood crush and eventual humiliation and heartbreak. "Well, I hate her," I said loyally.

The next year, we got engaged. We drove up to New York that summer, where I would borrow a spare car to drive to Indiana while he worked as a lifeguard. We had only been at his parent's house a day or two, though, when I heard the door bang open downstairs. A girl said, "Is she here? WHERE IS SHE? I WANT TO LOOK AT HER." And then someone ran up the stairs. I sat up on the bed with the book I was reading and the bedroom door flew open. A skinny girl with curly blond hair stood there, looking like someone who should work at a drive-in and wear roller skates and hot pants. She looked at me - chubby, no makeup, baggy jeans and a tie-dye Led Zeppelin t-shirt - and her face slowly performed an actual, genuine Grinch smile. 

 

"Hi. I'm Amy," she said through her fangs.

"I know," I said.

A few days later I drove off to Indiana.

When I returned a month later, something was wrong. Mike wouldn't look at me directly. As we packed up the car to go to Lake George with some friends, I asked about their trip to Woodstock '99, and one of his friends said, "Yeah, we had fun, but Mike went off with Amy a lot." My world did that tunnel-zoom thing and my entire body went cold. 

I should have left then. I should have figured out how to get back to college on my own. I should have transferred colleges and left the state. But instead I took him aside and asked him directly. After a very long silence, which I should have taken as an answer, he lied. His friends poked their heads into the room and said sorry, they didn’t know that he hadn’t mentioned she was there, and probably he just didn’t want to worry me. So we went to Lake George, and we drove back to college, and I tried to ignore the gnawing in my stomach. Things were never the same between us.

It took him 7 years to admit to the affair - panicking because I had grown so distant, fell for someone else (unrequited), and was preparing to leave him. He confessed to that and a few other things, hoping to make a clean start. I divorced him anyway. I moved to California. He followed. We reconciled eventually, because he just wouldn’t give up and go away, and he’s so damn nice. We moved to Maui, and Leif was born.

While Leif was a baby in arms, we were sitting on the couch and Mike had his laptop open to Facebook. A friend request popped up, followed by a message bubble. It was Amy. She was married and pregnant now, and thinking about him. He froze. “Shut that shit down right now,” I said. He didn’t move, but his hands were shaking. I took the laptop away from him and blocked her.

The next year, I checked to see that she was still blocked on his account (she was), and then curiosity got the better of me and I check her profile. She had the baby, a girl, and had given her the middle name 'MICHAEL'. I almost threw up. I almost left him again, but he hadn’t done anything this time, and now we had two kids.

I did finally leave him again, for reasons not related to her. 6 months later we reconciled again (I KNOW), and remarried when I was hugely pregnant with Zenny. When Zenny was 8 or 9, she became interested in horseback riding. Mike’s sister had just enrolled her own daughter in riding lessons, and encouraged us to get her into it. Zenny had been riding for a few months, Mike had been sharing pictures with his sister, and then suddenly she posted on Facebook, wow! Great to have another mom friend at the stables! because what do you know? Amy signed HER daughter up, too! What a COINCIDENCE.

Now my Facebook feed is full of tagged pictures of the woman.

And then I got to spend the last two days of my trip to Scotland with her mother, who made sure to post pictures of me blinking and eating. 

I found a job I can apply for in Scotland. I can still leave again, maybe.

 

Edited to address the comments:

Yes, I know, and I agree. We don't have a dreadful marriage, though. We're friends who have been together since we were 17. He's a happy person, a good father, he reads interesting books and has productive hobbies, and he grew out of most of his bullshit a long time ago (but if/when it happens again, I'm out like a thief in the night, and he knows it - FOR REAL THIS TIME). Also, I know what it's like to carry a torch for someone (see: unrequited). I would have been rooting for them to finally get together, if he hadn't been, you know, ENGAGED TO ME.

I told him I was thinking of leaving and fucking off to Elgin without him, byeeee, and he smiled and said, "Okay, or we could go back and look at Inverness seriously, maybe try to make it happen?" I don't know. I'd rather not lose my house in Hawaii, if I can help it. I grew up here, my kids were all born here. It's just that when you decide you want to do something, you want to do it right now.

When Holly met Scotland

 

Also, my editor emailed me and I remembered that I'm working on a book that's due in 6 months, so maybe I should finish that.

But this is not over! It has just begun! And I'll do it myself if it comes down to it. Just as soon as I figure out how.