A Love Story: Act Two

She knew the exact moment she fell in love. It was a Saturday in trendy Fells Point district in Baltimore. They were walking around window shopping just kind of hanging out. It was so simple no pressure nothing to fake. She was having a good time, a genuine nice time just being with him. For her birthday he got her music, she was touched because to him music was personal and special. The card said: "I...you know I do but I can't say it yet.: She did know deep in her heart that he loved her. Baltimore was magical for them; their lives all the reasons they probably should stay apart were miles away.

Later that day Dung called to invite her to dinner at his favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Co Chin. That night was totally different than any date she had ever been on before. The food was exquisite Asian and the atmosphere lovely. But best of all he talked to her. They talked a long time even while the waitstaff stacked chairs on tables as they closed the place. We walked around Baltimore in the cool February air. There was something about her; she was intense about her work, like him. He never would have expected it as Kenny's best friend he assumed she would be like him, nice enough but unmotivated and a little flaky. Only she wasn't just intense about work, she was intense about politics, family, everything. He was really different not just because he worked so hard at being different which he did, but he was definitely deeper than any of the other men she had known. There was a sensitivity, an artist perception of the world. For her there was nothing sexier than an artist. He took her hand and it felt right. She remembers thinking what an unlikely match. We are nearly polar opposites, but there was something about him that was so familiar. They were together a lot after that night, mostly in secret. He had this phrase that she just loved. "The Dung Mystique", it was the perception people had of him as a mysterious deeply private person. She loved that phrase because with her he was never that way. That made her special.

But reality crashed into their paradise on a late night phone call from Georgia. Kathy's father had a major stroke. Would she stay or go? What would happen when Dung had to move to Dallas next year? All those questions hung around like clouds, but he only cared about how she was. Could she handle it? Did she need something? Kathy would finish out her contract and head back to Georgia for the summer. Dung would stay in Baltimore until August. So at the of the regular theater season Kathy packed up, got in her car and left for Georgia with a promise to be with him in Dallas.

It was a promise she would not keep. The first and only promise she broke to him. It almost broke him. When he showed up in Georgia with the U-Haul truck to take her to Dallas Kathy had not thought about the guilt she would feel leaving her family at a time like this. Baltimore had seemed like a lifetime ago. What was she doing, leaving her family in their time of need for a man she had known less than a year. But still she left. And once on the road, every minute every hour she regretted her decision, but could she ever tell him. Unfortunately she did. Looking back she probably needed time to readjust to everything.
She told him she couldn't stay and she was leaving to go back to Georgia as they arrived in Dallas. She heard him begging, she saw the confusion and pain in his eyes. She did not realize until she was in Louisiana on her way home that she had hurt him more than anyone ever had.

Well alone they remained. He came to Georgia to visit her before Thanksgiving, that rare year when it snowed on Thanksgiving in Dallas, Texas. Another blow was dealt, she did not want to see him anymore. She did not even know why she told him that. She felt it was unfair to him, he should feel free to go on with his life in Dallas. Kathy's mother drove him to the bus station. She could not believe what her daughter was doing and told him :"if it was meant to be, it would be". On Christmas Day Kathy finally reached Dung after trying all day. He had been at work or keeping himself busy. As she got off the phone her mother found her crying.

"You still love him?"
"Yes, but all I've done, he will never forgive me." Kathy cried.
"Only one way to find out", her mother said.

Kathy and Dung talked for a long time Christmas night. She could tell from his voice he did not trust her. She could not blame him but she would work to earn back his trust. It was agreed that she would come to Dallas for Valentine's Day.

(To be continued- Act Three)