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The Dating Chronicles
The Run-In

            The restaurant had dim lighting, but Mitch recognized her from forty feet away.  He hadn’t seen her in two years, and there she sat with another man engaged in giggly chatter.  From across the room, he studied them.  She looked much better now than before.  Her hair was chic, her clothes fashionable and she looked happy.  As he struggled to maintain the mood at his table, he recalled their breakup and how she begged him to reconsider his decision to leave her.  She had stood in the door of their apartment to prevent him from leaving, but he had pushed out of the way. Her last words had been, “I’ll never love another man.” But he’d fallen in love with another woman and he couldn’t hear her.

            Now, two broken relationships later, for the first time as he stared at her across the room, he felt ashamed. As he stole looks in between bites, he began to consciously compare himself with the handsome stranger.  The more he watched, the angrier he became.

           His date was beginning to sense his discomfort.  He faked a smile when she gave him a quizzical look, because he was no longer listening to her chatter. He had lost his appetite and his interest in his date.

            Perspiration began to break out on his face as he fought to look indifferent. His insides turned to jelly, when he caught a glimpse of the stranger kneeling and putting a ring on his ex-wife’s hand.  She kissed him and he began to feel sick as he watched them rise to leave with their arms locked around each other.

            Suddenly, without warning, he found himself standing and then running.  He moved to the door as she moved to depart, but her look of disdain stopped him cold. He groped for words, but none came out, as she walked past him as if she didn’t know him. He wanted to say he was sorry.

            When he returned to his table, his date was gone and so was his dinner.

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