“I’m glad it happened though, because I never would have met you.”

We were standing in the kitchen last night talking about my life back in Nacogdoches, Texas. Gossiping about friends, laughing at stories, and sharing some of the not so funny things that happened to me toward the end of my time there. We had way too much rice cooking on the stove as I repeated, once more, the tale of a friendship lost. As my feelings of betrayal came back to the surface I turned to him and said, “All is fair in love and war. At least that’s what I told myself. That, and everything happens for a reason.”

“Did your friends say anything?”

“Not really. A few of them tried before, telling him that he didn’t have a shot with her because we were best friends, but she changed her mind. The whole group dynamic changed. It was awkward, or at least it was for me. But my friends are good friends. They are still in touch with me, and I love them to pieces. But I was leaving Nac in a couple months, where as the two of them were staying. I wouldn’t have expected everyone to react any differently. It sucked, feeling like I was losing them too, but I may not have ever left that town if it hadn’t. I needed to get out of there.”

And that’s when he said it. He was glad it happened, because he never would have met me.

You know those moments in life that you will never forget? I don’t mean a day, or a week. I mean like an instant. Someone can say a word, or you can smell something and suddenly a whole bunch of very small moments come back to you. The way she looks when you see her walk down the aisle. The first time you really looked into his eyes. When you hold your baby for the first time. The moment you answer the phone to hear about the loss of a loved one. The look on your best friends face when she tells you that she got kicked out of school. The first time you cuddled and his hand just barely brushed your thigh. They aren’t always huge life altering moments that you think would stick out in your mind forever, but as time passes they are the ones you find yourself coming back to.

All in an instant.

One sentence and suddenly a thousand moments came flooding back to me. Sitting on the bathroom floor sobbing while my ex sat in front of me. The first time that smooth talking cowboy came into the office. Her face when she told me they were dating.

Out of order and just as powerful as the first time they happened.

A razor blade in a shower. Screaming and begging him to open the door so I can confront him about cheating on me. Hot pink high heels. The look on his roommates face. On his boat, as he turns back to me and smiles. Running into the door, giddy after our first date.

But now there are new moments.

A Facebook message about playing the guitar. A hot July night, when we hugged for the first time. A North Face jacket. His hand on my knee driving down from the mountain top.

And now this.

While sausage was frying and rice was boiling, a moment that I won’t ever forget. I’m not sure what the future holds, but I do know that everything happens for a reason. And I’m glad it happened to me too. All of it. Because I never would have met him.

-L