How They Met. David FriedmanЧитать онлайн книгу.
the day she moved out, she arrived at her new house to find a dog sitting in her driveway. The dog had no collar and no tags, so she went into the house and left it outside, figuring it would go away.
As soon as she went into the house, the dog came up onto the porch, jumped up on a table, curled up, and went to sleep. (She realized later that the dog was sleeping on the table so it could look into the house and see her.)
Day after day, the dog would be parked in front of her house, and night after night, the dog would sleep on the porch. Finally, Linda decided to take the dog in. She named him Charlie.
Linda took Charlie to the vet to have him checked out, and discovered, to her dismay, that Charlie had a serious heart condition. “I’m afraid this dog has about three days to live.” was the vet’s prognosis. “We can try and give him medication, but I don’t think it will help.”
Linda had no money at the time (she was basically subsisting on small fees she would receive from acting jobs here and there) and could not afford the medication. The vet, seeing her upset, offered to give Charlie the treatment and medication for free if Linda would allow the vet to use the dog for a research project after its death.
She took Charlie home, and Charlie lived healthily for three more years! During that time, Linda and Charlie were inseparable. She got a job doing presentations for an advertising company, and Charlie, who was never on a leash but would follow her everywhere, would actually go on stage with her and sit by her for all the presentations.
Linda began dating someone else, but not particularly seriously, because she felt so burnt by her previous relationship. She also befriended a man at work named Bob. They worked side by side constantly and had a wonderful collaborative friendship, but there was no thought of anything more. They were just friends who liked each other a lot and worked well together.
As time went on, Bob began to be interested in Linda as someone he could like as more than just a friend, but because Linda was seeing someone else, Bob felt that nothing could happen between them.
One day, Linda and Bob had a serious problem with their boss. They had done a presentation and the boss was dissatisfied and became unreasonably enraged. On the bus ride back to the office, the boss was screaming at Bob, berating him publicly and threatening to fire him.
When they got back to the office, Bob went to a restaurant next door to try and cool off. Linda found herself waiting around for Bob to make sure he was alright. Finally, she went into the restaurant and they decided to go to a different restaurant and have dinner. During that dinner, as they talked and talked and talked, they both had an unspoken realization that something had changed between them and that something romantic seemed to be in the air.
A few days later, Bob decided to take the chance and asked Linda out on a date. He took her to dinner and to see Beatlemania, and then took her home. He couldn’t come in though, because he was highly allergic to dogs and Linda still had Charlie. But he kissed her goodnight, and Linda reports that after that one kiss, she closed the door, slid down to the floor and thought, “My God. This is the one.”
But still reeling from her four-year relationship-gone-wrong, and seeing her relationship with the man she was presently dating falling away, Linda was reluctant to get involved, so she held Bob at bay. She told Bob that she didn’t want to get serious, and anyway, she had a dog and Bob was allergic to dogs. Basically, out of fear, she used Charlie as an excuse to not get closer.
Bob responded by saying he understood and they should remain just friends.
And then . . . Charlie died.
A few days later, Linda and Bob were working late in the office and were the only ones left. Bob asked Linda if she would like to grab some Chinese food, making sure to emphasize that this was not a date, just dinner between two friends. Linda accepted the invitation, they went to dinner, they went back to Linda’s house (where there was no longer a dog), and Bob never left.
They’ve been married for thirty-five years.
It’s very clear in Linda’s mind and heart that Charlie was her guardian angel. He showed up out of nowhere on the day Linda’s relationship ended, kept her company through her years healing, living far past the time he was supposed to, and “stepped out” when Linda was taken care of and ready for the love of her life.
That dog “knew” something.
This story was told to me by my friend Mel. It’s not exactly a “How They Met” story, but it so supports the “you never know” theme that I wanted to include it.
Over thirty years ago, Mel was best friends with a guy who was “absolutely gorgeous.” So gorgeous in fact, that Mel never gave a romantic relationship a thought, even though he secretly pined for this guy. Being sensible and knowing that a knockout like this would never give someone like him a second glance, Mel contented himself with a wonderful friendship. They were, in fact, almost inseparable, they hung out a lot, the guy always invited Mel places, they had great dinners and spent a lot of time enjoying each other’s company and talking about life. Ultimately Mel was grateful to be friends with this guy, even though he knew it could never be more.
Eventually they drifted apart, and after not too long Mel met Paul and began a relationship that has lasted to this day. He had long ago forgotten about his gorgeous friend, until one day he ran into him in the supermarket and they got to talking. His friend was also in a long-term relationship, and as they began to share the stories of their lives, Mel’s friend looked at him and said, “Were you aware of how much in love I was with you?” Mel replied, “WHAT?!?!” His friend continued, “I tried everything to get you to notice me, calling you up all the time, going places with you, but you seemed so uninterested in a romantic relationship that I eventually gave up.”
Thirty years later both are content to be where they are with the partners they are with, but it goes to show you, “Never assume! And never underestimate your own attractiveness.”
She Didn’t Catch the Bouquet, But She Did Catch a Husband
Victoria’s close friends were getting married and she was going to the wedding without a date.
Victoria had been dating a guy for some time but he had neglected to tell her one small detail about himself. He was married.
About two weeks prior to her friends’ wedding (to which Victoria had invited her “boyfriend”) Victoria was at work (she was a producer for a morning talk show in New York City) when she received a call from a woman who told her she was her “boyfriend’s” next-door neighbor and that she felt Victoria should know that her “boyfriend” was married. Apparently, so as not to get caught by his wife, Victoria’s “boyfriend” had set up a phone line in his next-door neighbor’s house, his next-door neighbor being a close pal of his. When Victoria would call, unbeknownst to her, she was calling an answering machine in the neighbor’s house. The neighbor would then go next door, notify Victoria’s “boyfriend” that Victoria had called, her “boyfriend” would go next door, and call Victoria back from that phone. The guys were pulling it off until the neighbor’s wife got wind of what was going on and felt compelled to tip Victoria off.
A few minutes after Victoria found out the truth, her “boyfriend” called her at the office. Victoria worked in a large open room with a lot of people sitting at desks nearby, so all of her coworkers were privy to Victoria’s top-of-her-lungs tirade where she reamed him out for deceiving her, ending the conversation with, “And you were lousy in bed!”
Now, in addition to not having a boyfriend, Victoria had another social dilemma. She was scheduled to go to her friends’ Pat and