The hearts were willing but fate stepped in

This is a story you may have read or heard somewhere because I have told it to many and written about it. But such is the nature of these matters of the heart. Happy or sad, you will always hear the story sooner or later.
It was at a golf tournament, a game I have little interest in and knew little about. To me, it was a fun day because after, there was a dinner-dance. Golf is a game that can go on the whole day, so I spent the time at the clubhouse. It was not until much later that things became more interesting.
As part of event management, I was assigned the duty of receiving guests to the dinner. I was to do this with Sal; we were joined by Lisa. I do not remember what we talked about but we were able to keep it going until dinner time. At the table, we were joined by two other people. The atmosphere was lively and the drinks were flowing. Of the three girls at the table, Lisa struck me as a free spirit, so I talked to her more.
There was the dance but I was not into it, they were playing oldies. Neither was anyone at our table, and besides, the girls had to go. When Lisa was leaving, we exchanged numbers. But that was not all; she gave me a hug (I did not expect that). Wow, it was heart-warming but I was not sure I wanted to see her again.
But 6am, one day, several weeks later, she called to wish me a good day. This actually made my day. From then, we started to call each other and to go out on dates. The more we met, the more I got to know about her. She is very interesting and different; I liked her company. She is great but seemed to conceal pain in her heart. Nevertheless, we all hurt in one way or another.
The thing with attraction is that it can be one way or at different levels. The question I asked myself, was she also feeling the same? Many times I wrestled with this dilemma. Many times I wanted to tell her but I would “choke on my words” at that point.
Then, February 14 came around. Thank God for St Valentine. The flowers and chocolates were more than my “rehearsed ka-speech” could convey. A week later, after a UB40 concert, is when I first told her that I was attracted to her. But there was a catch… there was excess baggage. It was the elephant in the room.
I had broken up with my girlfriend who was trying to make a comeback. She had a boyfriend but claimed they had “chucked”. But she never seemed to be over him and had kept in touch. Anyway, our baggage is each of our own business to handle. We were in this together but we had to do what was best for each of us.
She suggested we take a break but I thought it was better to bring it to an end and work our “relationship” and ourselves out of our systems. But was the decision from the head, or from the heart? What about fate?
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