Unrequited Love and Yet... by Liz Flaherty #WordWranglers

"The Unrequited love poem."

No, I'll spare you from reading any attempt I might make at poetry, but in truth I have a very blank mind this morning, so I went looking for a writing prompt. Thank you again, internet--looking things up is your best gift to any writer. Especially one with a blank page.

So, have you ever been in unrequited love, where the person who holds your heart doesn't feel anything about you? Or feels friendship and really only wants to talk to you about the one he really loves? Or, oh, Lord, doesn't even know you're alive. (That's how it is for Sam Elliott and me, but...oh, well.)

I have been, of course. I made a high school career of being un-popular--which contrary to my belief at the time, didn't kill me. My first boyfriend was rebounding from a breakup. I thought he the coolest thing since sliced bread--he thought I was...handy.

I didn't marry the first person I loved, although I married the last and best. Every day for over 49 years we've told each other we loved each other more than once. Usually, one of us says, "I love you more," and the other person says, "No, you don't."

Yesterday, we talked about that. The truth is, there are times when I really do love him more. There are other times when he loves me more. This is, I guess, what runs the marriage-go-round for us. We've had some hard times in our life together. There have been a few years I wouldn't want to go through again. Him, too, and they would be different years.

Unrequited love isn't something I've written about, although I'm a fan of marriage resurrected--which is sometimes the same thing. I remember reading some stories when I was younger that used this trope and used it well. I believe the stories were historical, which made them more believable (for me.) I admit to having trouble placing a modern young woman in a situation where she was the one giving all the love. But I remember...

I read a short story once, and I apologize for not being able to give either the title or the author. It was about a couple in their 30s who just kind of ended up together because there they were in their 30s and ready to have a family and it had never happened. So they dated and eventually married--all with no depth of feeling. They were leaving for their honeymoon, and I don't remember what the conversation was, but they had a flat tire and he was going for help on what I think was a dark and muddy night. He told her to wait in the car and stay safe. She watched him walk away, and suddenly got out of the car and ran to catch up with him, placing her hand in his so that they would go on together. The final words of the story were, paraphrased, "And so it was, that on the day she was married, she fell in love with her husband."

I have no idea how long ago I read the story, but it still thrills me. In romantic fiction, unrequited love is the same thing as hope, and I guess that's my favorite trope of all.