A Tale of Tests

by Neely Steinberg

They were 400 miles apart. She resided in Boston, He in Philadelphia. She was with her new boyfriend talking about their impending visit to Manhattan.

He was with his new girlfriend discussing plans for a trip to the very same city. Both new couples were excited about their respective road trips, but certainly neither She nor He ever thought in a million years that their paths would cross.

Couple It’s a Saturday night in New York City, and She and her boyfriend are headed to her high school friend’s birthday party at a local bar. Upon entrance of this establishment, She is in desperate need of a toilet, her bladder on the verge of bursting. She lets go of her new boyfriend’s hand and walks to the other end of the bar to find the bathroom.

As She is walking, she feels her world is suddenly in slow motion. Could it be Him? Closer and closer She gets. One foot in front of the other. Her knees start to buckle. Her stomach juices start to churn. It is him.

What are the chances of this happening? Neither He nor She live in Manhattan, and out of all the thousands of bars, clubs, and restaurants they could go to, they choose the same one. How could this be? She goes up to him and says hello. Strained smiles, polite speech, “what are you doing here?” She hardly knows what to say but feels compelled to mention that she is here with her new boyfriend. He responds that he is with his new girlfriend. She feels sick. After a fair amount of awkwardness, She finally excuses herself from him and heads back to her high school friend and her new boyfriend.

She asks her high school friend to buy her a shot and explains that she just ran into her old boyfriend. Well, sort of.

She explains to her friend, who’s somewhat out of the loop when it comes to her love life, that He was someone she had been “involved” with on and off for a year and a half. While they were never truly boyfriend and girlfriend, they were loosely dating, sleeping together, and hanging out. It was passionate, lustful, tumultuous, emotional and unstable. She knew He wasn’t ready for a relationship, but she thought she could somehow force it to happen. She would always have regrets and “what if’s” about him. She told her friend that He had recently moved home, from Boston to Philadelphia. And all of this, while her new boyfriend was standing a few feet away, watching her take shot after shot. One Kamikaze after another, like her plane was going down.

She walks – more like stumbles – over to her new boyfriend several minutes later. She doesn’t know what she is going to say. Should she tell him? After looking at him while he is attentively looking into her eyes, She decides to keep it from him. Somehow, in her inebriated condition, She decides that she doesn’t want to create drama or to make him self-conscious or to confuse him. Because She likes him.

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She looks over to her right and He puts his arm around his new girlfriend. He and She exchange glances every now and then. She wonders what he is wondering. He has his arm around her. He is whispering into her ear. What are they talking about? She feels sick. But when She turns back to her new boyfriend, her nausea subsides; it makes it easier to bear the pain of seeing her ex with someone new. She kisses him but not for show, well, maybe just a little bit. She wonders if it was a mistake to do such a thing.

But suddenly She doesn’t care anymore. While She will always have a weird spot in her heart for him, she doesn’t feel like she did several months ago – heartbroken, lonely, and demoralized. He leaves the bar, but She didn’t notice until much later. She was with her new boyfriend. He left with his new girlfriend. Tomorrow would come and He and She would go back to being strangers – strangers in different towns. She in Boston, He in Philadelphia.

The next evening, She thought about the incredible odds of what had happened. She knew she was meant to share her story. But what was her story?

In truth, it wasn’t a story about an old relationship. It was a story about testing something new. All new relationships go through tests, and if a relationship can make it through these sorts of trials, it is a testament to the strength of the connection and to the feelings that both of those people have for one another. The outcome of these tests should never be taken lightly.

And She realized, amidst her reflection, that what she had with her new boyfriend was good and true and real. They had made it through a test and inevitably one day they would face another. She didn’t know what would happen with them (after all, it had only been four months), but She liked where they were headed.

Neely Steinberg is a contributing editor and writer for nuts4chic. You can email her at neely@nuts4chic.com

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