Member-only story
How I Fell in Love with The Dread Pirate Roberts
Learning to Love One Day at a Time
Good night, Westley. Good work. Sleep well. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning.
(From The Princess Bride, 1987 film)
A year ago, I lost the woman I thought I’d spend the rest of my life with.
She told me that she had to leave, and I didn’t understand why. She said that she had told me many times. If I didn’t know, then I hadn’t listened, and that was reason enough. She was losing herself, she said, and I didn’t see or understand.
I asked for explanations, but the time for hearing anything was long past. I was hurt and angry and I felt she was leaving without trying. She must not have loved me as I loved her. I had been wrong about her, I told myself, along with other lies to assuage my pain.
I could not imagine maintaining a friendship.
So I didn’t. We parted ways. I did not stay in contact. I never called or drove past her place of work or looked for her online. When local media announced this summer that my administration was eliminating my department and I didn’t hear from her, I assumed that she had left town, since she had moved here to be with me.
