Lose With The Truth — Or Win With Lies

Tom Linton loved Jesse Grant for five years, from high school to college. He did everything a guy in love would do. Roses, chocolate, serenades, poems, gifts, and everything his friends and family suggested. Everything he tried failed. He moved on in frustration.

Thirty years later, at their high school reunion, Tom was shocked to see that Jesse was still beautiful, looking as she did in high school.

He stared at her from a distance, chatting happily with her former classmates. He noticed that she wasn’t wearing a wedding ring.

The music chimes in, and everyone starts to move to the rhythm.

A voice to his left egged, “No ring means no husband.”

The voice to his right suggested, “a ring doesn’t mean happiness. You want the truth, asked her.”

He followed both voices and danced his way over, “Can I have this dance for old time sake?”

Jesse smiles, swaying to Marvin Gaye’s ‘You Are Nothing But The Real Thing, “how are you?”

“You haven’t changed in more than thirty-years,” he compliments, competing with the volume of the music.

“Thank you?”

Minutes later, the music ended, and Tom asked as she walked towards the table and chairs to the opposite, “Why couldn’t you love me. I gave you everything a man could give a woman.”

Jesse stared into his eyes, then said as he pulled out one of many metal chairs, “There was one thing you couldn’t give me?” she said, sitting down.

“What was that?” he asked, sitting across from her.

“The truth.”

Tom glared at her, then asked in shock, “that’s it? You just wanted the truth?”

“That’s the only way I could meet the real guy behind the show you put on trying to impress me,” she told him.

“All of the money I have spent. The time and energy I have wasted and all you wanted was the truth about me?” he asked in frustration.

Jesse nods.

“Did you eventually found the truth?” Tom asked, wondering.

“Oh yes,” she answered. “And I married him.”

“Do I know him?” Tom questioned his eyes on her left middle finger.

“Of course. Robert Maloney,” she said, holding up her right hand so he could see her wedding band.

Damn, his memory reminds him. She was a lefty. His ego released, “That poor fool. He had no money to give you the life I could.”

“The truth comes with many things Tom. Robert was poor, but he was honest. I just wanted a guy who was honest with me. You didn’t know how to do that,” she said.

“I lost you to the truth?”

Looking into his eyes, she asked, “Would you have rather win with lies?”

“Winning is winning whether it’s truth or lies,” fell from the revenge of a love lost that lay dormant in his heart for over thirty years.

“Winning with lies is winning and losing,” she informs, digging deep into his eyes. “But with the truth, you keep on winning.”

“So, I would have lost anyway,” he said in deep thought.

“Don’t feel bad. You aren’t alone on that road,” she assured, patting his hand that stretched halfway across the table before walking away.

You can win with lies or gain victory with the truth. But by winning with lies, you will eventually lose.

The truth is more potent than many of us can understand. Some of us are loved because we are human, and others are loved because they are just honest.

Thank you for reading this piece. I hope you enjoy it and will savor more from some talented writers whose links are below.

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