Mark and I hadn’t been dating that long, but my feelings seemed strong and sincere, and when he proposed to me, I wasn’t thinking more about the practical side of marriage, but about how cool it would be to have the first wedding among my girlfriends and get ready for that celebration, and choose a dress, and then call someone my “husband. What I hadn’t considered was getting to know Mark’s father.
Ryan was a forty-year-old man who looked so masculine and serious and wise and just plain handsome. Many times more handsome than Mark. I was speechless the first time I met him. I do not believe in love at first sight, but I can believe in love from the first meeting. The way he spoke, the way he reasoned and looked… It still takes my breath away when I remember his look.
He was twenty-two years older than me, but it didn’t bother me at all.
I went to see Mark and his father more often, refusing to admit to myself that it wasn’t for my fiancé’s sake that I went there. I fooled myself for a couple of months, until I couldn’t help but confess my feelings to Rayan. He was smart about it, too, and told me I had to break up with his son. It hurt Mark, but it was better than living in dislike.
So I did, and had to disappear from the life of these two for two years until Mark found a new girlfriend and got married this time. Then I reappeared on the horizon, following Mark on social media and stalking his father to set up a “chance meeting. Rayan immediately figured me out, but didn’t turn me away. We had coffee together, and then he invited me for a walk.
Now we’ve been in a relationship for seven months and I’ve never been happier in my life. Mark doesn’t know anything yet, but I really hope I marry his father. It will be awkward and embarrassing, but Mark is an adult with a family of his own and will be able to understand and accept somehow. It makes me laugh a little when I think that I could be his stepmother.
