True Love Didn't Die

Tiffany and Mike were college sweethearts. They were those kind that did everything together and were really like best friends as well as being a couple. When Mike proposed after college, no one was surprised. Everyone expected them to settle down and become a real life working family fairytale, and they did. They had two amazing babies and a dog. The little swing set that sat inside their white picket fence was a symbol of all the couple had worked for. However, one day, Tiffany was afraid that the entire thing would come crashing down around her head.

Mike had been working late a couple of nights a week, and didn't make it home to help put their young boys to sleep at night. At first she didn't think anything about it, but then as she was doing laundry one day, she found a phone number in his pocket. There was no name or any other details at all, just a number hastily scrawled on stark white paper. Tiffany connected this with those late nights and could have bet money that her heart stopped for a minute or two.

She thought about all they had been through together, and how hard they had worked to live the amazing life that they had. She wondered how he could go and throw it all away so easily. She still wasn't completely sure that Mike was being unfaithful, but what else could these things mean? Perhaps a fairy tale life wasn't as possible as she had come to believe.

Of course, while her children were at school, Tiffany was a complete mess. When her best friend got there, she let everything go and sat sobbing hysterically. Finally calming down enough to listen to what her friend was trying to tell her, Tiffany found out that she could easily visit a certain site and find out exactly who that phone number belonged to.

Imagine her surprise when she and her best friend huddled by the computer and looked up the number. It didn't belong to a woman at all, but a jeweler on 3rd street! Tiffany stopped sobbing, and before Mike and the boys got home, she replaced the number just like she had found it in Mike's pants pocket. She made her best friend swear to all that she believed in that she would never spill the beans.

A week later, Mike surprised Tiffany with the engagement ring that he had not been able to afford before they were married. It was just like the one she had secretly pined for all of these years; a solitaire with their wedding date engraved on the band. As big, thankful tears rolled down her face, Tiffany was satisfied that her fairy tale was not over, and that she would never have to listen to Mike laugh uncontrollably about her mistake. After all, she had threatened her best friend's tongue with sharp knives to make sure of that!