A Simple Twist of Fate

I was sitting on the stairs of the Lincoln Memorial last night taking in the view of the "refurbished" Reflection Pool when I began eavesdropping on the conversation going on beside me. This guy was sitting on the stairs staring off into space when someone walked up him and said "Eric!?" It turns out that Eric was from out of town and the guy speaking to him was a former coworker.

Somehow they both took vacations at the same time to the same place and ended up on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at about 9PM last night. The guy's wife walked up the stairs a few minutes later to meet her husband and yelled, "ERIC!!! Oh my God! The steps of the Lincoln Memorial must be where the fates converge." I turned my headphones back up after that, but her comment about fate and those steps reminded me of something.

A little over nine years ago, sometime in the Spring of '03, I was sitting on those exact same steps with a girl who I was feeling at the time. We sat there for well over an hour having a conversation about absolutely nothing. All I remember is trying to read her to see if there was any hint that she was feeling me too. I had broken up with my girlfriend a few months prior and was a little rusty at reading women.

I couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I decided to just let it go. What's interesting about this story is that much later I learned that she was interested in me after all. Very interested. She actually recounted that night and said that the only reason she sat out there so long with me was because she was working up the courage to say something to me. She also said that it didn't help that I left town the very next day, before we could talk again.

So where is this story going? Well, that night my ex-girlfriend called me to see if I wanted a ride back to NC. We were trying to do the "we can still be friends" thing, so she asked me if I wanted a ride back and we could go see the second Matrix movie that was opening the next night. Since I thought that the spark between me and the other girl was one-sided, I said what the hell and went back to NC the next day. Me and my ex went to the movies (only as friends) and I went home.

Later that night, just as I was about to fall asleep, my phone rang. On the other end of the phone was a girl who asked me for my number about a month after I broke up with my ex. She never called me in that time and I forgot all about her. She told me that she was going through her stuff and found my number. She assumed that I had gone home for the summer, but she was bored and figured it was worth a try.

We ended up talking on the phone for the next five hours about...everything. It seemed like every five minutes one of us would say, "I can't believe I'm telling you this. I don't even know you." Childhoods, families, sad Oprah-worthy stories, favorite foods, what kind of perm she used...everything! It was one of those conversations that you don't want to end. So we didn't. Tomorrow's our ninth wedding anniversary and the conversation is still going strong.

Every time I go to The Lincoln Memorial I can't help wondering what would've happened if I had just told that girl how I felt or vice versa. I know it wouldn't have lasted a month, but it would've lasted long enough to keep me from going back to NC the next day. Either my wife wouldn't have called back, or, when she did call, I would've politely told her that I was in a relationship and that would've been the end of that.

It adds a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Some things are best left unsaid."