He tricked me into thinking it would work. It didn’t. His sweet words and longing glances weren't enough to re-build a romance that had been destroyed by his jealousy and guilt.

Years passed. I finished college, wrote my novel, and adopted a girl from China.

Max and I wrote letters back and forth to each other. He took odd jobs all over the country, and would send me postcards. Ten years after we had parted, I invited him to spend Christmas with me.

“Mommy?” Kimberly asked as we got into my car, “Who are we picking up at the airport?”

“Kimmy, I told you,” I laughed, “My old friend Mr. Radford.”

“The guy who crushed your dreams?” She quoted me, as I had often referred to Max as such.

“Yes, but don’t say that to his face.”

When we got to the airport, it was snowing. Kimberly spotted Max first. I don’t know how he did it, as I had only showed her one picture. Even I hardly recognized him.

He had always been tall and thin, but now he looked haggard. He had hard lings on his face from frowning. His vivid blue eyes were guarded by thin-framed glasses; and his dark brown hair was streaked with grey.

“Adelina!” he called as I stepped out of my small car, “That Toyota is a step down from your van.”

“I know. Come on, you can though your bags in the trunk.”

He did just that, and then sat down in the passenger’s seat, brushing the snow out of his hair. “It’s nice to see you again. I notice that you still look like you’re wearing a mop on you head. Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice mop.”

I grinned. Despite any physical changes, he was still Max.

“Some things never change,” I said with a shrug.

Max turned around to face Kimberly, “Hello there. What’s your name?”

“Kimmy…”

“It’s nice to meet you, Kimmy. You’ve got a very cute hat. Where’d you get it?”

“Mr. Tim made it for me.”

I nodded, “Tell Mr. Radford who Mr. Tim is.”

Kimmy tilted her head a little, “Our neighbor.”

“He’s about as old as the dinosaurs, isn’t he, Kim?” I asked teasingly. It was our little joke.

She nodded back, “He makes hats.”

That night after dinner (which include Max showing Kimberly several card tricks and then attempting to explain them to her, and Kimberly giving Max the worlds longest dinosaur oratory), I put Kimberly to bed and tucked her in. “Sleep tight, sweetheart.”

“Mommy, Mr. Radford is funny,” Kimberly said with a yawn, “I wanna marry him.”

“That makes two of us. Nighty-night.”

“You know…” Max commented as I walked back into the living room, “I never took you for the parental type.” He shook his head as if it was some kind of great mystery, and pulled a small bottle from his pocket and took a round pill.

“Still taking sleeping pills?”

“Well… yes and no. Actually, I’m on medication for bipolar disorder, believe it or not…”

“Would you be terribly offended if I said I could believe it easily?”

“Not terribly.” He grinned. “But still… I can’t believe you picked up a kid!”

“Well, maybe if you had stuck around, I could have been raising yours.”

“What?”

I sat down on the couch across from him. “Max, I wanted to get married, alright? I wanted a nice little ceremony on top of a mountain or something. Why did you just ditch me after the trip?”

He looked at the carpet, “You’ll think I’m silly.”

“I already do.”

“I wanted… to beat you to the punch, so to speak. Addy, we were in a relationship for four years, nearly five. That was a long time. We were bored of each other.”

“Bored? Maybe you got bored with me, but I loved you! I had all of these plans by the end of the trip of us to get married and have a kid.”

“I saw Sally once again, you know?” His voice had taken on a kind of distant tone. “She died of a heart attack. She was only twenty-nine… Stress induced, the obituaries said.”

“Oh,” I motioned for him to sit down next to me, and he did. “Did you ever see Robby again?”

“I looked for him. He might be in jail.”

I leaned my head on Max’s shoulder, “We had some good times, didn’t we?”

“My favorite was the end of your senior year of high school, when everyone in the class threw chalk at each other.”

“Stupid,” I laughed, “I meant on the trip.”

“I don’t know… I thought it was all rather droll.”

“You’re so mean!”

“I know. I haven’t changed all that much. I’m going blind…”

“And your hair is all grey now.”

“Not all grey. Am I going to sleep on the couch now?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I missed the lack of back support that came from sleeping on lumpy couches and futons.”

I laughed, standing up, “Well, tomorrow is Christmas, you know.”

“I have presents in my suitcase. Although I don’t know how much Kimmy will like them…”

“She’ll love them. She loves you.”

He grinned wryly, “Like mother like daughter, eh?”

“Good night,” I sighed.

“Addy…”

I turned around, “Yes?”

“I love you. You know that, right?”

I was silent for a while. Ten years. So much good and bad had happened in ten years. I was a published author and a single mother. I had lost my brother and my father. And in then years, Max was still telling me the same old crap?

“Yeah,” I finally admitted, “I love you, too.”

And in that bittersweet sentence, I found something real.