Forgive and Foreclose

(The hows and whys of exposition, this week on Jared's Inkwell. Click here to check it out! -JMG)


Story Sent in by Brendan:

Anica and I dated in high school for a little under two years. She cheated on me with a friend of mine, and so we stopped dating and stopped talking. We graduated and that was the last I heard of her.

She emailed me almost 10 years later, out of the blue. She wrote a long message about what she had been doing with her life for the past decade. She peppered it with enough strategic compliments for me to realize that she was buttering me up for something, and sure enough, she wrote in the message that she wanted to see me, if I was comfortable with the idea.

I remembered the good times we had had together, but she was a little late. The time to have been nice to me would've been, you know, before she decided to fool around behind my back. Still, 10 years can change a person, and I didn't think that seeing her again would do any harm. She had been pretty in high school, and I had no idea what she looked like after 10 years. I looked her up online, and she had gone from pretty to absolutely stunning.

I was living and working about 40 minutes away, but we met up at a diner in the town in which we had graduated. It was poetic, I guess. When she showed up, the strangest thing happened. It was like all of the happy memories we had made together suddenly hit me again. Things I hadn't thought about in years came flowing back. All of her smiles, her kisses, her hugs... it all hit me again, all at once. It was so good to see her.

The conversation picked up as if we hadn't missed a day. There was so much to talk about, and I found myself doing the unthinkable: I hoped that she found me attractive. She was very attentive when I spoke and was brimming with compliments. I thought it was awesome that I was rekindling an old flame.

Then she arrived at the point. She said, "Do you remember Evan?"

I sure did. Evan was the guy she left me for. He and I hadn't spoken since then. Why was she bringing him up now?

"He and I were together for four years after high school, then we broke up." That much, I thought I knew. I had heard about them through the grapevine, but never by choice.

She continued, "But in the past year, we got back together and it's been awesome. I think he's my mate."

That was the word she used. "Mate." My libido crashed through the floor, through the earth, across interstellar space, and deep into the Andromeda Galaxy.

"But now he's in jail," she said.

I was surprised, pleased, and disappointed. Is it possible to be all three at once? Surprised because I never thought he'd wind up in jail, pleased because he was a dick, and disappointed because Anica still saw something in him.

I asked, "Why's he in jail?"

She said, "It's private. Anyway, I just found out I'm pregnant and we've got no money and with Evan in jail I can use some... some help..."

"Help?" I asked, "Like moral support? Or money?"

She looked down, then up at me, then whispered, "Money. I'm sorry. I just remember you being a nice guy, and my family won't talk to me and his family's got nothing and I remembered that you used to be so nice and I..."

"How much?" I asked.

"I dunno. Like $3,000?"

I laughed in her face and said, "Ten years ago, you didn't seem to need me at all. Now that your winner boyfriend's in trouble, you want my help?"

Anica said, "It was Evan's idea. He thought that if you gave us money it would make up for you not forgiving us."

I said, "So... you want me to pay? To forgive you?"

Anica said, "You owe us forgiveness. And what better way to prove it than with money?"

I laughed, said, "Good luck to you both," and kept laughing all the way home.