The Ones I Didn't Marry

It's Valentine's Day today, and the world is awash in proclamations of love. Love, love, love, everywhere love.

This naturally has set me to thinking about the men I didn't marry. There weren't many of them but I was pretty sure I had found true love in each of them.

There was Jimmy from third grade, who was smart and had a crooked front tooth and gave me an enormous valentine IN AN ENVELOPE. Also, his mother's first name and my middle name were the same, so I was sure it was fate that we should marry but this apparently is not enough to carry love through to middle school and I lost track of him after his family moved away during the summer between third and fourth grades.

There was the guy in high school who unfortunately didn't know that I was alive, so it's probably just as well that we are not married today because that kind of love would make for a very lonely existence.

There was the Costa Rican janitor who wasn't very smart, but oh, my, could he dance. Again, probably just as well we aren't married because skills on the dance floor don't translate very well to providing for a family unless you're Fred Astaire, and he was not.

There was the guy who asked me out after I got home from the Peace Corps, when I was beginning to think maybe Jimmy had been The One and I had let him get away too soon. But when he bought me a stuffed animal as a birthday gift (for my 27th birthday? Really?), my mother famously said "Sometimes alone is better" and I was so relieved I almost cried.

Instead, I married a guy who doesn't like to dance, who sends me flowers on random days of the year but probably not today, and who is the only person in the world who actually likes elevator music. He also knows I think bowling is torture and that cleaning off my snow-bound car is better than a box of chocolates. I feel safe when he is driving, which is a feeling that is so, so much better than dancing with Fred Astaire. After 30 Valentine's Days together, he's still the most romantic guy I know.

Husband, you were so, so worth waiting for. I'm glad I married you.