“We're not actually together right now."

“What?" I was honestly shocked. "You two looked ready to get married when we graduated High School."

He shrugged.

“College is a different world, man. But just because we're not together doesn't mean we don't Love each other."

I screwed up my eyebrows looking at him as if his face had turned green.

“We've been keeping things casual. She sees other people. I see other people. But in the middle we always manage to find each other. She's just too damn gorgeous and I can't keep an eye on her when she's at her own school. Besides, all my teammates would lynch me if I took up permanently with a Stanford chick. Boning her from time to time, that's cool. But nothing permanent."

I briefly thought of E-Beth.

“You happy with that kind of open ended relationship?"

Nate waggled his head.

“Yes and no." He broke into a grin. "I gotta admit, man. Sometimes it feels Like I've got my cake and I'm eating it too. I've still got a solid line out to Monica, and we have some really good times. But I can still play with all the gorgeous football groupies. If I become the starter in a few months, I'm going to have more pussy than I can handle!"

I chuckled and we both looked off into the horizon. The sun was starting to come down on this summer evening, bathing the canyon in an orange glow.

Then Nate's voice came up softly.

“But you know, I got this feeling... deep in my gut. When the dust settles, whether it's in the NFL or just another day job, it'll just be me and Monica."

The handsome quarterback turned to me.

“She's my soulmate, you know?"

He was certain of it; I heard it in his voice. And I knew that I didn't feel that way about E-Beth. We were good together. She made me happy.

But I wasn't sure if she was ‘The One'. Maybe she could be, but right now, she definitely wasn't. I had to admit, it made me feel just a little bit better about us splitting up.

“But!" Nate wheeled to me. "You didn't ask me to meet you here just to listen to me wax poetic about YOUR ex-girlfriend. So what's up? You got something to get off your chest? You looking for answers to your own pathetic excuse for a life?"

"Yeah..." I answered slowly.

“But you know, I think you already gave me the answer I needed.“

“What's that?"

I smiled back at him. "Plenty of fish in the sea." werk

PRE-COLLEGE (September 2000)

Same day, different year. But the rain came again.

I held the umbrella with my left hand and my right was wrapped around