Beached.

The Meet

It was windy, so there weren't many people. My hair danced across my face as I strolled along the shoreline, letting the chilly waves wash over my toes. Occasionally, I would glance around to see if Jake was approaching.

We agreed to meet at our spot: the beach. We met here, our first date was here and now we might break up here. Fitting. Scenarios flooded my mind as I aimlessly kicked through the surf.

Someone was calling my name. I turned to see Jake making his way toward me with two coffee cups. Wiggling my toes in the waves kept me occupied while I waited.

He finally reached me, holding out one of the cups. With a small smile, I accepted it. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he responded. We turned in step and continued along. The silence was actually comforting. "Let's sit," he suggested.

We found a dry sandy spot and plopped down so we were facing each other. I sat with my legs folded, cradling my coffee, which I found upon the first drink was an Irish coffee. Jake sat with his feet anchored in the sand and his forearms resting atop his knees. His cup in one hand, dangling between his legs.

Patiently, I sipped my coffee and stared at him while he decided where to start. Finally, he broke the silence. "I don't know where to start."

"How about with the fiancé you forgot to mention? Or the random lunatic running around claiming to be your fiancé?" My suggestion came without hesitation.

"That's the first time she's come here. I haven't seen her in years." He paused. "I haven't seen her since I was last home." My eyebrow arched, waiting for him to continue.

There was so much about Jake I didn't know. He might as well have been leading a double life. Jake and Sylvie were high school sweethearts. They had started dating when they were both 14 years old.

The other shoe dropped when Jake took me through the chapters of their almost betrothal. To no surprise, Jake was also an oil heir. The assumed plan for the pair was they would wed and merge the fortunes.

However, Jake always had his heart set on being a pilot. His goal was to have a long, storied military career. That didn't fit his father's vision for him to take over the family business. Sylvie didn't love the idea of being a military spouse, so she and his father teamed up to force a marriage and a career change.

Much after the fact, Jake had learned his father attempted to get the family heirloom ring for Sylvie, and Grandma refused to give it to him. Grandma was steadfast that Jake needed to ask her himself for the ring.

Instead, Jake's father let Sylvie design her own ring and wrote the check. During homecoming weekend at Annapolis—of course Jake was the starting quarterback while at the U.S. Naval Academy—Sylvie showed up wearing the ring.

Jake was livid. He and his dad's relationship never recovered. At 20 years old, he broke up with Sylvie. However, she's spent the last decade plus in denial. Convinced they'll end up together, she pretends the breakup didn't happen.

Jake never asked Sylvie to give the ring "back" because he didn't give it to her. Jake, his mother and grandmother have asked his father several times to get the ring from Sylvie and tell her it's over. Jake's father did not respect anyone's wishes. Every few years he tries to help Sylvie win back Jake. This ploy is part of the reason Jake hasn't gone home in five years.

Typically, Sylvie would wait until Jake was visiting for a holiday or other event, and would wander around, flashing the ring. She started doing it even when he wasn't there. But, it's been so many years, no one takes her seriously.

It hadn't occurred to her that he could be living a perfectly happy life in California until the picture surfaced. The picture he took of us after our jet ride—me smiling excitedly into the camera, Jake hugging me from behind and his lips pressed to my temple—had made its rounds in the Lone Star State. It was the first time she, or anyone, saw a photo of Jake with another woman.