Why does she still hurt me?
Tldr: 19 years ago I met Cassandra in a chatroom. We had an intense on-and-off situationship for 7 years, romantic and flirty when it was on, sweetly charged even when platonic — but we never met in real life. We hurt each other (she hid a 2-year relationship with another girl; I hurt her too). Life happened, I met my current partner of 12+ years, and things faded. Last year, during her divorce, she suddenly texted me after 11 years of silence, said she'd always wondered about "us," pushed to meet, flirted after my boundary, and then ghosted. It crushed me. I still occasionally check her profile and wonder "what if," but I know she's selfish and in love with the rush, not with anything real. I probably dodged a bullet.
we met before technology became what is today. we wrote letters to one another, shared our romantic fantasies of each other. told each other ILY and thought we meant it. maybe we did, but who knows when we never got to meet. you hurt me, I hurt you, we became friends again. our friendship was romantically charged underneath it all and i nearly came to you when you were stationed overseas. we were so close to meeting, after all these years. I was so excited but so calm and you were hiding your excitement. we were platonic at that time but we both knew once IRL it would have so much deep and woven romance between us if it could be as real as we had hoped. i don't think we will ever get another chance in life like we had then and I'm sad. life just simply happened and the moment slipped away from us. you're not back home, stationed where you grew up and reached out to me out of the blue. it was scary, exciting and hurtful. i fell back in love with you so hard. it flipped my world upside down.
A year later I'm finally starting to feel I'm healing again. i want to yell at you for being so selfish, yet again, but it's no use. it will just fall on deaf ears. you told me I'm your first love which I believe you for that. but you're still just too self absorbed and forever crushing on having an exciting new crush. you couldn't even make it passed the seven year itch with your wife before divorcing her on flimsy grounds of "I'll never be enough for her", despite her being the sweetest girl to you. She truly loves you, you big jerk and you divorced her. perhaps i dodged a bullet by being unable to meet you, all these years later.
sincerely...
a girl who still wonders if there could have ever been an "us"