My latest read was Public Displays of Affection by Susan Donovan. I had read the shorts in the "Real Men" anthologies, and dug out this book from the bookcase. It is a second-chance story where the hero and heroine met 13 years earlier, then the hero moved into the house next door. Those second-chance theme books are among my favorite, and I also love serendipitous stories. This book quickly enterred keeper status for me. I loved it, and I couldn't set it down while reading it.Here are some real life improbably probabilities I've witnessed....
My first love lives doesn't live next door to me. We moved 3000 miles to run into each other again. He lives an hour or so from here. Not exactly next door, but completely unexpected.
At my day job as a debt collector, there have been 4 million debtors we've had the opportunity to call over the last year at work. The lady I carpool with called her first boyfriend. She hadn't heard from him in 25 years, and hadn't been to that home town in 25 years either. She saw his name pop up on the screen, and sure enough... it was him. Another lady I worked with called her high school's secretary.
I've run into people I know in airports around the country, and most often we've both travelled great distances and were just at the same place at the same time.
When I lived in Anchorage, Alaska, I saw this woman smack her toddler and call him stupid. It really irritated me, and I told her exactly what I thought in firm and relatively polite language. She didn't really appreciate my observation no matter how politely I called her on her violent reaction and she told me to mind my business using profanity. Wouldn't you know, in a town of over 250,000 people I ran into that woman about once a month until the day that I moved.
Any stories along these lines?
My first year of college, I sorta/kinda went out with this guy, Joe, but mostly we were good friends. When I started seriously dating another guy, we lost touch.
ReplyDeleteSo, five years go by, and I find myself working and living at a very chic apartment community. I was friendly with the girls in the office, and one night after work, we went to a psychic fair.
It just so happens, that the psychic I saw, worked with my mother previously. A LOT of of what she told me came true - like becoming a writer, and not really needing my degree, etc. But she kept asking me during the reading, "Who's Jo?" Well, Jo is my mother's name. She kept insisting that it was a man named Joe who was important to me, and that he would be coming back into my life. Well, for the life of me, I couldn't think of any Joe.
So, when I went into work on Monday, I saw a packet addressed to my Joe from college in the outgoing mail. Of course, I asked around and Joe was moving into an apartment in the complex - right around the corner from mine.
I did run into him after he moved in. (Thank God, I had recently lost 50 lbs.!) And we did renew our friendship and even sorta/kinda dated again for a while.
I dated a guy very briefly around the time I graduated high school. We worked together at a part time job. The relationship fizzled and he went to work somewhere else. When I started college I became friends with a girl whose boyfriend was that guy's best friend.
ReplyDeleteI've spent most of my life in the same county. So I run into people all the time.
ReplyDeleteHowever, once my husband was on a business trip and took a quick trip to see Sea World. There he ran into some old friends who had moved away years ago.