The Back Story

What some see as simple, others know is pure insanity coming to attack them or the ones they love. It happens.

One never forgets some moments in time. There are those special things like the birth of your first child, graduations, and of course, weddings. They seem so mundane, but that's because few know the entire stories of the different people experiencing them. That's the rub of the world and those events. Nothing's ever as easy or normal as it seems. How could it be, when there are humans involved?

The year was 1993. It had been a turbulent year, to say the least. Few knew the comings and goings of the two stars. One was an up-and-coming young guy with ambition and a mission. He struggled, but he'd not forgotten the mission at hand. The other, as he would soon learn, was more than met the eye.

All the details had been planned out. Things were on track for a beautiful weekend, and a major part of his mission was about to come to fruition. Sure, he was nervous. He had a lot of questions. It seemed like an easy story. Boy met girl, girl seduced boy, and then life got complicated. Now, the wedding was upon them.

Jeff went to work three days before the wedding. He was planning to be off the day before and several days after. She, Jenna, was beautiful, blonde, with green eyes, and a smile that melted his tough, rough-around-the-edges exterior. Like so many other things in life, just when you think things are settled, the past comes knocking. But it wasn't at his door.

'JEFF MOORE TO THE WAREHOUSE,' an overhead announcement called out.

Great, thought Jeff. It was his boss. He thought he had everything in the warehouse tied up and ready for his days away. He wondered if he'd missed something or had something gone horribly wrong. Begrudgingly, he made his way to the warehouse.

As he walked through the door, his boss, Steve, stood there with his arms folded in front of him. The two looked at each other, and Steve had a smirk on his face. It gave Jeff the creeps when Steve smirked like that.

"So, who's the tail?"

Jeff looked at his boss. The tail? What was he talking about? He admitted he didn't get the reference. Steve took him aside and showed him on a monitor that connected to the cameras in their section. As Steve pointed at an image of a young woman wandering around, looking particularly out of place, he asked again.

"Who's the tail?"

Shit, thought Jeff. What was she doing there? The woman was an old girlfriend from college. Things had ended, even though it was more about outside influences than the two of their desires. She was, until he got with his childhood crush, the one that got away. But now wasn't the time. He was just days from his wedding.

"An old girlfriend," admitted Jeff.

"All things considered, if it's a problem, I can go tell her to leave," offered Steve.

Jeff considered it, but rather than putting her through one of the corporate types embarrassing her, he opted to deal with it himself. Steve said that was fine, but not to let her keep hanging around.

Jeff returned to the sales floor and made a point to find Cherie. He hadn't seen her in a few years, so it was awkward. When he first got close to her, he nearly chickened out. There was something about her. She'd always been his kryptonite.

"Can I help you?" he asked, being nonchalant.

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?" asked Jeff.

"Are you and Jenna getting married this weekend?" asked Cherie.

He admitted that was the plan, and Cherie promised it wasn't going to happen. She couldn't let Jeff marry the mother of his child.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to go through with it," he told her. "If you're not here to buy something, I'm gonna need you to get out of here. My boss is watching you."

"Fine," she barked. "But this isn't done."

As Cherie walked off in a huff, he wondered how she'd found out he worked there. A better question, he realized, was what was she up to? He'd find out later, when he went out to his car at the end of the day. Sitting on his windshield were a dozen long-stemmed, red roses and a card.

He read the card. It had four words. Four words that stung him to his core.

'Marry me, not her.'

She made many attempts at getting his attention over the next several days. However, Jeff was committed to giving his son the one thing he'd not had when Jeff was young: a family. So, as much as he still found her attractive and had feelings that lingered, he couldn't do that to his fiancée.

The day of the wedding, Jeff was excited. Sure, the sudden appearance of an old flame had confused things. She'd loved him in a way that nobody, not even Jenna, had ever loved him. But from the day she had said she was pregnant, this was his mission, and he was almost there.

As he stood in the parking lot, outside the chapel, Jeff stared at himself in his suit. That's when he heard her voice.

"You know she's not the right one," Cherie told him, turning him around and laying a tender kiss upon him.

"I'm sorry," he stuttered after their momentary dalliance broke. "But, I love her, and I want to give my boy something I never had as a young kid. I hope you can understand."

Cherie looked at him and professed her love. She promised she'd be a good mother to his son, and that she'd love him in a way that Jenna never would. When he turned to go inside, she followed.

Right to the bitter moment when the officiant uttered the words, "If anyone can show just cause why these two should not be wed, speak now," Jeff was a bundle of nerves. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Cherie on the other side of the stained glass doors. Then, as if showing her final act of devotion, she disappeared.

What had just happened wasn't a wedding. Sure, that had been the big event as far as everyone else knew. Actually, what happened was a robbery. Jeff wouldn't find out immediately, but five months later, he learned how much Jenna had stolen from him.

She walked into the bedroom, where Jeff was sitting and preparing for his new job the next day. He was going to be an officer and had to report for firearms training. Not wanting to look stupid, he was practicing using speed loaders and holding a gun when Jenna entered.

"We need to talk," she told him.

As he sat there, holding the loaded .357 Magnum in his hand, he looked up and asked, "What's up?"

"I want a divorce," she announced.

Jeff's world suddenly turned into a whirlwind of emotional turmoil. He asked why, and that's when the regrets poured over him, the rage, and the realization that he'd had his chance at something real stolen from him. They were words that would never stop echoing in his mind.

"I've never loved you. I know that it was wrong, but I've never loved you. I used you to get away from my parents' abuse. I shouldn't have married you, and I want out," she insisted.

It was in that moment that she realized the weight of what she was saying. She'd just told someone who was her best friend, who had fought for her, who had protected her, and who loved her, she'd used him. Ten years of childhood together, coming into adulthood, friendship, and she'd targeted him because he was the type who would fight for her, and was fierce enough to get her abusive family to stop hurting her.

But it was Jeff who felt the true weight of it all, and the awkwardness of that moment. She'd just admitted to intentionally using him and was now shattering his heart. And to make it even more awkward, there was the timing of it all. As his rage built, he realized he was holding a loaded gun in his hand. He looked at her, looked at the gun, and looked at her again. When she finally ran out of the room, she realized the position she had put herself in by not paying attention.

Just like that, it was over. Jeff raised his son. People told him over the years, "Get over it." He worked. He lived. But after what she'd done, he'd never found the love of a woman again. He got close a few times. But none of them could ever get through the guarded exterior that Jenna had left in her damage path.

And nobody close to Jeff ever understood why he lived his life the way he did.