Many thanks to Randi for inviting me to join in for this event.

Ever love someone enough to let yourself be played for a fool? I might as well have been carrying around a sign that said:

“Pick me! Pick me!”

“When a man loves a woman

Can’t keep his mind on nothing else

He’d trade the world

For the good thing he’d found.”

It started in my junior year in college. It was the first day of class and my first class of the day was Managerial Economics. I’d just taken my seat when she walked in. I don’t know if it was lust or love at first sight, but the girl grabbed my attention and held it for the next three years.

I’d never seen her before and I found out later that Mildred Camelot (please call me Millie) had transferred in from Eastern Michigan University.

I tried a dozen times over the fall term to try and get her to go out with me, but she always turned me down. Then I tried another half dozen after going back to class in January. Finally, just before start of spring break she said yes.

When I showed up to pick her up her mother looked at me confused.

“You had a date with her tonight? I don’t understand. She left for Panama City this morning to spend spring break with some friends.”

I was pissed, but convinced myself in her excitement to spend spring break in Florida she forgot about our date.

When I approached her on the first day of class following the break, she was extremely apologetic. She said the chance to go came up at the last minute and she didn’t have a phone number where she could reach me to let me know. I bought it. Why wouldn’t I? I was so besotted with her I would accept anything she had to say.

She agreed to a date that Saturday and we had a great time and the kiss she gave me when I took her home pretty near buckled my knees. I asked her out again and she said yes. We dated steady for the next two months and then one night at a party she disappeared on me. I looked all over for her and after an hour I gave up and went home.

I called Saturday and her brother said she wasn’t home. I didn’t bother to call again. If she wasn’t upset enough to call me and ask me why I’d abandoned her at the party I guess I really didn’t matter to her as much as I’d hoped.

I was in the school cafeteria on Monday when I saw her come in, go through the line and then look around. She saw me and headed for my table and sat down.

“Sorry” she said.

I didn’t say anything and she said “I should have found you and told you what I was doing. John Felter bought a new Mustang convertible and wanted to show it to me. He asked me if I’d like to drive it and when we got back to the party you had already left. Everyone told me you had been looking all over for me and I figured that you would be too pissed at me to want to talk to me so I waited for today to apologize hoping you’d be over your mad or at least not quite as mad.”

“It’s okay. I was just worried about you especially when I didn’t hear from you.”

We made a date for that night and were practically joined at the hip until summer break arrived. Our make out sessions got hotter and hotter as time went on. I got close to home plate, but just couldn’t get there. Millie told me she’d promised her mother she would walk down the aisle as a virgin. I of course honored her refusal.

A couple of friends told me that Felter was bragging about fucking Millie on the hood of his Mustang. Said he was laughing at having separated me for Millie at Flanigan’s party and then fucked her. I’d known Felter for years and we’d fought twice in high school and I’d whipped his ass both times. Besides that, he blamed me for stealing Pauline French away from him. The fact was that I didn’t. She dumped him because she said he was a lying asshole and I didn’t take up with her until a month after they broke up.

I didn’t believe a word the asshole said besides, I knew my Millie and she would never take up with the likes of Felter. And there was also the promise she made her mother and I knew she’d die before she’d break that promise.

I was frustrated because I hadn’t been laid since two weeks before the start of my junior year. I could have gotten laid if I’d wanted to. Three of the girls I’d made it with in high school and two I’d gotten with in my freshman and sophomore years were still classmates were still available and dating. One had even asked me flat out to help her end a dry spell, but if Millie could hold off until she said “I do” I could stay true to her.

True to her? Oh yeah; I’d already made up my mind. Millie was mine. She owned me heart and soul and she was going to be my bride.

+++++”If she bad, he can’t see it.”+++++++

Things took a sour turn at the summer break. We both had intern jobs at different employers and our work schedules and days off didn’t match so we had a hard time getting together. I heard from friends that she was out dating other guys, but I could understand it. Why should she stay home and watch dumb TV shows just because or schedules didn’t let us get together. We did get together enough to maintain a close relationship.

We moved into our senior year and we did it as an established couple, but there was still a bit of a rocky spot. I was still working part time for the company I had interned with over the summer, but Millie understood. She realized it would lead to a good career when I graduated and we could start our marriage on a solid footing. She promised we would make up for it on the weekends.

++++++”Turn his back on his best friend if he put her down.”++++++

I began hearing rumors that Millie was out partying and making out with guys on the nights I was working, but I knew it was all bullshit because I knew my Millie and it just wasn’t something she would do. Date yes, but make out with her dates? Ridiculous!

When my best friend Brad, who had been my best bud since the third grade asked me if I was getting serious about Millie I told him:

“Serious enough that I’m going to ask her to marry me. Why you ask me something like that?”

“Just curious buddy.”

“Oh no you don’t. I’ve known you damned near forever and I know when you’ve got something bugging you.”

“Okay then. I’ve seen the way you are around her; I’ve heard you talk about her and I know that you consider her your girl. I’ve known you damned near forever also and I don’t want to see you hurt, but that girl sure does spend a lot of time running around and making out with other guys.”

“Bullshit Brad. My Millie wouldn’t do that to me.”

“Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’ve seen it with my own eyes. Twice! The first time I didn’t know you were serious about her so I never mentioned it. It was at that party Bob Flanigan threw a while back. I was out back in my car making out with Pauline French and I saw her and John Felter come out and walk around his new Mustang. They stopped in front of the car, talked a bit and the she leaned back on the hood and Felter fucked her. “And just last week I saw her on the back seat of Stan North’s Pontiac with her legs pointing up at the headliner.”

“Shut your lying fucking mouth! Millie isn’t that way! I don’t know what your problem with her is, but just stay the fuck away from me from now on” I snarled and walked away from him.”