A Second Chance From A First Date.

Justin was a loner of sorts, even though it never suited him as well as he would have people believe. It was the life he chose that lead him to remain alone as long as he had, and even he believed, at times, that it was for the best. Sure, there'd been a great love or two in his life. Those too were victims of the life he chose. His one great love may have come to him far too early for him to be able to appreciate what it meant. Circumstances far beyond his control would bring that to an end.

There were, of course, others. He'd even married a woman. It wasn't for love, per se, but out of duty or sense of honor that he carried with him. They had a son together, the results of a torrid affair between two lost and lonely people that simply needed each other. It hadn't worked. Not that it had for a very long time. Justins' own misguided sense of loyalty had driven him to a mistake and like any mistake, it was something that he would have to pay for.

So he spent a lifetime alone, bouncing from woman to woman, trying to erase the one face that he could not stop seeing when he closed his eyes. After a while, it almost seemed more like a noble gesture than anything else. Seeing the tears of grieving families as they buried their dead made him wonder why anyone would get close to anyone in this world. It all felt like a recipe for loss and as much as Justin didn't like loss, he knew he didn't want to leave someone behind feeling the pain of that loss if he were dead.

Justin worked a normal job by fifty. After years of living in the middle of the worst of humanity, he lost his sense of belonging. He'd gone from never being afraid of the fight to not seeing the sense in the fight. So, he went to work a more normal job, finally having an opportunity to find himself. Still carrying the sins of the past, the memories of the evils that men wrought onto others, Justin was still the same but in control. He was finding contentment.

It was Friday and he, like many others, was running errands after work. He was at the grocery store when a woman came up to him. Justin was certain he didn't remember her. She sounded and looked familiar.

"Hey you, long time no see," the five-foot brunette said to him.

"Hi," Justin answered, struggling to remember her.

"How've you been?" she asked.

"Not too bad," he replied, still unsure who the woman in front of him was. "How about yourself?"

"I'm doing pretty good," she told him.

The two got to talking and after an hour passed by he realized he needed to get home. His son was coming to visit. He told the little lady that he needed to finish his shopping and move along.

"Sure, no problem. Hey, would you want to exchange numbers?" she asked him.

It would be one way of getting her name without looking stupid so he agreed, unlocking his phone and handing it to her for her to put her number in. She had done the same and handed hers to him as well. He typed his name and number, saving it to her iPhone. She handed him back with her name still on the screen. "Tara," it said. He still had no idea how they knew each other.

"Well alright, text me sometime," he told her.

Justin finished his shopping and went home. After putting away his groceries and making some dinner, he went back to his computer and started working away. Justin was almost finished with his third novel. This one looked like it was going to be published. He already had an advance for the rights to publish it and was ahead of time. Justin sat with a glass of his favorite Bright Cellars Merlot in his hand. The writer's block was already in full swing.

"Ring, Ring, Ring."

Justin looked down at his phone, seeing the name Tara. That was fast, he thought as he pressed the answer button highlighted on the bottom center of the screen.

"Hey," he said, answering.

Tara: How are you?

Justin: Good, just trying to get some work done.

Tara: I know it's been forever ago since we saw each other, but I was wondering, since your single still, would you be interested in going on a date.

Justin: I don't know...I don't really date much.

Tara: She's cute.

Justin sat thinking about the offer. He hadn't been on as much as a date for two years. The idea of dinner with someone sounded good. Still, he hadn't seen Tara in years so what kind of woman would she set him up with?

Justin: Tell me about her.

Justin sat and listened as little miss Tara described the blind date she wanted him to go on. If he accepted she promised he would be in for a big surprise unless he had changed his types over the past thirty years. She even offered to pay for dinner if he accepted.

Tara: She was married for twenty-three years. Her husband was not a nice guy. Now her kids are out on their own and she's single. It would be nice for her to have a nice guy.

Justin could not help but feel a little sorry for the girl. He didn't consider himself a nice guy but knew he wasn't into abusing women. It was, he considered, just dinner. So he accepted, albeit, reluctantly. Tara told him that she could it up tomorrow night if he was alright with it being that soon. Her friend was in town for the weekend, looking at moving back to her hometown to be closer to her mother. He told her she could set it up and text him the details. All she could say was thank you and that he wouldn't regret saying yes.

It was eight o'clock the next day and he was sitting at the Landmark Cafe, a small but nice restaurant in his hometown. He couldn't believe Tara was paying for such an extravagant first date. His date, whoever she was, was late. The waiter came around twice before he ordered a bottle of wine. His nerves were getting the best of him so he poured his favorite. Justin was halfway into his second bottle when he heard a voice from behind him saying...

"Justin."

He turned around, his hands a bit shaky, as he was about to greet his date. When he did he froze in his tracks. Justin just stood there surprised.

The girl standing in front of him took him back in time, back in time to twenty-eight years ago. He had not seen her for nearly three decades, and now, the one true love of his life was standing in front of him. She was wearing a black dress with spaghetti straps over the shoulders. It clung to her body, which was still almost shapely as it was thirty years before. He looked her up and down, afraid that he was hallucinating, not wanting to miss out on a single detail if he was.

"Jesus, is it really you?" he asked her.

"It's me..." she hesitated, not sure if his shocked expression was one of joy or anger. "Sorry, I'm late."

"No," he said, "Please, have a seat."

Carrie sat down across from Justin, smiling from ear to ear. She was every bit as cute as he remembered. Sure, she had a slight amount of gray in her hair and a bit of wrinkling around the eyes, but her smile lit up the room. She almost gleamed. She always had.

Justin was immediately taken back to the days before his wedding. He hadn't seen the woman in front of him since the day he got married. She knew how bad his soon-to-be wife would be for him. Even though he was marrying someone else, the girl very much loved him, loved him enough to try to save him from her. She went the distance, right to the bitter end. Carrie showed up at the chappel, sneaking around the outside so she could stop Justin and make him listen. The last time Justin saw her, she was standing just the other side of the glass doors leading into the Chappell.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her?

"Tara let me stay with her the past few weeks. We were traveling down memory lane and the one place I kept going back to, was you," she explained.

As she spoke, Justin poured them both a glass of Merlot. He was so excited his hands were shaking.

"So, what have you been up to?" she asked. "No, wait, I know what for the most part."

"Yeah," he said, curious.

"My mom told me all about you. Your grandma and my mom went to the same church."

They in fact had gone to the same church and become the best of friends. It was Justin's father that filled in the blanks for her mom, ten or so years ago, it would seem. It was Susan, Carrie's mom, that had broken the two teenage lovebirds up all those years ago. Justin found out at his grandmothers' funeral that Susan learned about the kind of man the boy she hated so vehemently had become. She'd even apologized and admitted she wished she could turn back the clock.

"It's probably all true," he told her.

"I'll bet," Carrie smiled, "I'm proud of you."

"Thank you," he told her. Those words, words he never expected to hear from her, not in his lifetime, meant more than she could know.

"So, tell me," she said to Justin. "Why have you never remarried?"

Justin thought about the question, and whether it was something that he really wanted to admit. Looking at her as she poured them both another glass, he realized she was the reason he'd never remarried. He could still remember the girl that tried to stop his wedding, the girl that loved him that much that she tried to seduce him before his wedding. She was also the woman that loved him enough she understood letting him go to be with his son was the right thing to do even though it hurt.

Justin took another sip of his wine, before downing the glass. He looked at the bottle, then motioned for the waiter to bring them another.

"Easy cowboy," Carrie said.

"I'm just nervous," he told her.

"Or you're really loving that..." she picked up the bottle, looking at the label. "Bright Cellars Merlot."

"It is good," said Justin.

"You're not off the hook."

He chuckled as the waiter returned with another bottle. After the waiter poured and left, Justin sighed deeply. He knew she was waiting for an answer.

"What do you want me to say? No matter how many times I tried, there was always one woman I couldn't get over losing," he explained.

"Do you still..." she hesitated.

"Yes," he breathed deeply, admitting it without saying it to her.

"Good," she smiled, putting her hand across the table to hold his. "I don't think she ever really got over you, either."

The waiter brought their dinner and they ate and drank the night away, catching up on the lives they were forced to live, without the other. At the end of the night, Justin and Carrie were the only ones still in the restaurant as the closing staff worked around them. It was getting late and the restaurant was ready to close for the night. The two lovebirds had gone through five bottles, a decadent dessert, and danced every slow song that came over the speakers. When they were kids, they had to sneak around like kids do, never getting to go out in public, never getting to enjoy being together. Now, here they were, having the first "real" date they never got.

"So, what do we do now?" Justin asked.

"I was going to go home tomorrow, pack up my things before I'm officially moved up here. I still need to find a place but I've got..."

"If you need somewhere to stay..."

"Yes!" she exclaimed before jumping out of her chair, running around the table, and straddling his lap. Carrie kissed him, passionately. The two lost themselves for the moment until one of the waiters cleared his throat in a loud fashion.

"Let's get out of here," Justin said.

"Let's," she laughed. "I've got years of lost time to make up for."