This post is for satisfying Secret’s curiosity about a man who tried to dissuade me from getting married the day before my wedding. And after reading my story would you tell me if somebody did something really surprising to you too to make your jaw drop? Maybe trying to woo you or woo you back? Or simply because you eally didnt expect it?
Well, Moon implied that the above guy could have been 1) a romantic hopeless fool 2) a scheming vengeful fool.....
Sorry, Moon-dearest, there is also a third option: that guy was a romantic scheming fool...lol...
Scheming in the meaning that he tried until the last minute to make me change my mind about my wedding. And he did it in a surprising way.
If you already read my previous story you know that Marco was my colleague and veru dear friend who i worked with during my second newspapers job. Until thatday we had been knowing each other by more than one year.
And by the same amount of time he had been in love with me.
The day before my wedding we had worked no stop. I was dead tired. And I could tell Marco was getting more and more restless. He tried to convince me to go to lunch together but at the last minute he had to cover a story out of town. I was working on another assignment myself. He called me and told me “Ok, no lunch but I will be free for a coffee around 3”. I said no “I am going to the flower shop to check the bouquet. The lady had called me and wanted me to check for the last time the composition” So he called me again from the office and told me “Stay there. I am coming to pick you up”. No, I answered, I know you have a meeting you can’t miss. But I have time for a coffee, he insisted. But I can’t, I have to run from here to the City Hall.
He was frustrated. We didn’t see each other until 7:30 that night.
It was then that his romantic scheme finally worked out good.
He simply locked me in his office.
He basically refused to open the door until i wouldn't have listened to him.
I wasn’t surprised, and neither mad though. I knew his feelings. I wanted to avoid him, that’s all. Sparing him a talk that I knew wasn’t going to have any consequences for my decision and spare him any pain. He was one of my dearest friend. But, as he later told me, he had to do it anyway, for not regretting it later. He had to try one more time.
So I sat down. He told me he loved me, he couldn’t help it and he had tried hard not to feel that love for me. He had never met my soon-to-be husband but he knew what he needed to know about him so he said he wasn’t the right guy for me, he and I didn’t have anything in common and in the long run not having a common background or interests would have destroy our marriage. He said that it needed to be more that sexual chemistry and passion between two people. Would you have disagreed?
Instead, he continued stating his plea, he would have been by my side for the long run because he knew we would have lasted. Didn’t we survive working together all those crazy months? Plus my fiancé was even younger than him. Marco himself was already younger than me. This age gap was driving him crazy, I guess...
I let him talk. My family was waiting for me with my soon to be husband at their home for the big dinner planned before the wedding...I was supposed to be there in 20 minutes.
But I couldn’t be that cold and cut him short. I knew I had to let him talk until the last word. He was sitting on the corner of his desk while he was talking. I still remember that the window was open, it was almost the end of June....a beautiful summer evening....and it was there that he asked me to marry him. Not him.
This was unexpected.
I looked at him in disbelief. “Oh, I don’t think you really mean it”, I said.
He repeated it to me.
No ring, no speech on his knee. Even though I knew he was damned serious.
So it was my turn to talk now so I carefully chose the right words. I didn’t want to hurt him. He had been one f my best friend, my tutor, my companion in so many adventures, we shared so many laughter and secrets, panini and cappuccini at his desk when it was too late to go out for lunch or dinner. He had always believed in me and gave me so much confidence in my own skills. He defended me when I made mistakes and encouraged me when I got hurt or trashed by other people comments. And now this.
I was extremely flattered and sad and confused at the same time. Wouldn’t you?
But I had to go.
I got up. I took his hands; I kissed him on the cheeks and hugged him. He hugged me tight back. It was really painful. He didn’t move when I left the room. He just looked at me with a long sad stare and then he surprised once more again.
“See you tomorrow at the wedding”.
“Are you coming?” i asked again caught out of surprise.
Yes, he said. “I have to finally meet who is taking you away”.
And indeed he went. I was coming down the stair of the City Hall where the mayor had married us, when I spotted him. He was very nicely dressed, close to Luigina. He told me he asked her to come with him so it wouldn’t be awkward for him being there alone. She called me, totally oblivious of the situation. Chirping and chatting as usual.
I went there and I hugged him. He smiled and shook hands with my now husband whom I introduced to him and Luigina.
Marco had still the wit to joke. “I want her back asap. And with a good story”.
My husband smiled back and said it would have been difficult to keep away from the job anyway..
I looked at Marco and he hugged me again. Luigina luckily was chatting incessantly. My husband was talking with another person at his side. Marco and I stood for a second. He told me I looked beautiful. “I knew you wouldn’t have chosen a traditional white dress” he said and then put on his sunglasses and said “Luigina, we need to go. We have to work today”. And they left.
I grew fonder of him even more. I admired him so much for his behavior.
Yes, that day my husband knew about him. But he thought he had only a co-worker crush on me. I told him the real extension of his feelings only later.
When I went back from one of the shortest honeymoon of history (only one week in Tuscany, Umbria and Capri) Marco was there, at his office. I entered the room and everybody greeted me, joking about the honeymoon, the ring, the fact I have shed some pounds.....
He kept talking at the phone but he was smiling.
I was back.
We remained the same great friend from the day on, working again together. He never talked again with me about that crazy proposal.
He never dated anybody seriously but he did have some girls. They would call him at the office, they would come to pick him up for some coffee. He would tell me about some dates.
But then one day another reshuffling brought us a new editor chief (a woman), hateful event that meant the end of my lucky period and took away my dear friend from me.
He got promoted so he had to leave.
And then it was my turn to watching him leave and cry.
