Lover missed

Ashley pointed at my high school yearbook photo. "Who's the cutest boy in here?"

I paused. "Someone Mommy had a crush on for a long time."

"Why didn't you marry him?"

"Because he always liked girls prettier than me."

During the most painful part of our on-again, off-again relationship, I married someone else just to make him regret losing me.

Later, I discovered I could fall in love with someone else, too.

01

That afternoon, as I graded papers for my teacher after school, all I could think was, "I'm screwed. Michael definitely left already."

For an entire semester, I'd secretly followed him home, pretending we lived in the same direction. I told myself if I couldn't keep up with him one day, I would stop liking him.

The cleaning crew had already left. Disappointed, I returned to the classroom. But there he was, sitting at my desk, flipping through a textbook.

"Why haven't you left yet?" I asked. Before this, we'd barely exchanged three sentences.

"Waiting for you, silly," he said.

I thought he might actually like me. He often arrived late to class, slipping a bagel and coffee onto my desk just before the teacher walked in. After basketball games, he'd push through the crowd just to ask, "Ashley, who were you looking at just now?" He'd sneak his phone into school and share his earbuds with me during evening study hall, playing his favorite band’s new album.

But then, he'd suddenly become distant, like after summer break. One day during gym class, I saw him with the pretty new transfer student in an empty classroom.

"Someone might see us," she said.

"Don't you want them to?" he asked, his voice playful and teasing.

The transfer student playfully pushed him. "Michael, you're so annoying!"

People whispered. "Michael's moved on already? That was fast."

"Well, look at her! She's gorgeous. Ashley’s…plain."

"Guys are so shallow."

When it came time for college applications, Michael got a full ride to a top university up north. I chose a state school as far away as possible, down south. After graduation, we went our separate ways. I didn't even add him on Facebook.

Sophomore year, during the hottest afternoon of the summer, I was back in my dorm, binge-watching TV after class. My roommate, returning from a date, shrieked, "OMG, you guys have to see this! There's a seriously hot guy downstairs waiting for someone!"

"Is he in our department?"

"No way, I've never seen him before."

They crowded around the window, pulling me down to look. I peeked out and saw Michael, surrounded by a gaggle of admirers. He stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking up and smiling at me.

I showed him around campus, took him to the local burger joint, acting like we were just old high school friends.

"When are you going back?" I asked as we walked through a busy underpass, the sounds of skateboarders and a guy with a guitar almost drowning out my voice.

He still heard me. "Midnight flight."

"That's soon."

"Yeah, I have an 8 a.m. class tomorrow...