Week 5 Storytelling: Who Would You Choose?

"You look beautiful!" I said to my good friend, Hannah, on the day of her wedding. Here I, Emma, was again at another friend's wedding with no prospect in sight. I always have to bring Tony, my longtime best friend, to all of these weddings because I can never find someone to bring myself since I am hopelessly single. It's the same thing every time; I do the motions of being in the wedding like being in the bridal party, meet up with him afterwards since he can't be a part of that, and then get drunk together at the reception to forget how we are both ridiculously single. For those of you wondering, no, this is not the point of the story where you all go,"Oh, it's because y'all are meant for each other!" This is definitely not the case, I promise. 

Wedding (wikimedia)

In the tradition of drinking and dancing too much at weddings, I run into this good-looking man named Samuel. Supposedly, he is one of the groom's friends from college and we dance and talk for quite a while at the reception. We talk over the next couple of days, get along pretty well, and he's going to take me out to dinner sometime next week, which I'm actually pretty nervous about! 

To make life even more hilarious, I was antique shopping today looking for a set of shelves for my bedroom when I bumped into this very attractive man that was looking for a new desk for his apartment. I learned his name was Greg and he helped me look for shelves while I helped him look for a desk. We went to lunch afterwards and talked for hours. It was an instant connection and I would very much like to see him again as well. 

Antique Shopping (wikipedia)

How is it that a week ago I had no prospects and today I have two? I'm just going to see where each relationship goes over the next week or so. For months, I was talking to both Samuel and Greg, meeting up with them for dinners, and becoming more and more confused about who I wanted to keep around. 

During this time is also when I realized that I was becoming more tired and losing my appetite. In the beginning I thought it was because I was stressing out too much and worrying about who I was going to choose, but Tony actually made me go to the doctor and I'm thankful that he did. It turns out I have leukemia. When I got back I immediately told both Samuel and Greg of one, my condition, and two, of each other. 

What I really don't deserve is for both of them to continue to care for me and want to fight to be with me. They both had fallen for me and wanted to be with me forever. They are both fantastic, wonderful, and the most amazing men in the world and how could they both want me? So here I am, stuck in this hospital for months trying to get better. 

Hospital Bed (flickr)

Samuel will drop by the hospital to visit me pretty often. He is the best and has made it his responsibility and his goal to spread awareness of my disease. He started an organization to raise money for leukemia. He spends all of his time and efforts being charitable and reaching out to people all over the city. I am so thankful to have someone that cares so much for me that he is doing everything he can to save others like me. I really do love him!

Greg also visits me quite often, but he is also a busy businessman. I asked my doctor about the medical bills today to see when they were due. He looked at me with a smile and said to me that they were already taken care of and I didn't need to worry about it. Turns out that Greg has been paying my medical bills this entire time! I am truly so thankful for him and can't imagine my life without him. I love him and all that he has done for me!

My best friend from the beginning, Tony, actually, has been the one to stay by my side throughout this whole sickness. He was the one who sent me to the doctor, sat with me in my appointment, and really hasn't left my side ever since. He leaves when he needs to but comes back as soon as possible. We often fall asleep watching movies together every night and I now realize how much he means to me. He makes me laugh and feel better when the doctor comes in with bad news, he lets me cry on his shoulder, and he is the one that understands the pain I have been going through all this time. As I look at him now sleeping in the chair next to my hospital bed, I realize that I have loved him this entire time without knowing it. I think he has realized it too because normally he would go do his own thing by now. Sometimes the hardest times in life make you think about if you have a future, what you will do with it. 

So, if the doctor comes in and tells me that I am cured and I have the rest of my life to live, who do I spend it with? Do I spend it with my long time best friend who I have been with through thick and thin? Do I spend it with the gentleman who loves me enough to change his life and spend it raising awareness about my disease? Or do I spend it with the man who took responsibility for me out of love and has made it his goal to make sure that I have a life full of life without debt? 

Who would you choose?

Crossroads (flickr)

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Author's Note: This story is inspired by the riddle of The Three Lovers in the Twenty-Two Goblins Unit. In the original story, a goblin riddles a king with a story about a beautiful girl that is being pursued by three suitors. The girl ends up dying and being cremated. The first suitor lives on her ashes and becomes a beggar just to be with her ashes. The second suitor takes her bones and dips them into the sacred Ganges River. The third suitor becomes a monk and wanders until he finds a spell book that would bring her back to life. He returns and brings the girl back to life in her full beauty. The goblin then asks the king who the girl should pick as her husband. The king, being a wise man, tells him that the first suitor who stayed with her ashes should be the one to have her for he acted as a husband would, when the other two acted as if a father or a brother would. The king guesses right and the rest of the unit continues. In my story, I decided to make it more modern with a confusing love story. Tony represents the first suitor, Samuel represents the second suitor, and Greg represents the third suitor. In the end, though, I decided to leave it as an open question for you to answer yourself, who you would choose. I also chose to write it in a way where we are in Emma's mind as the couple of months paths so we can see her own heart change in the process.

Bibliography: The Three Lovers. Twenty-Two Goblins. By Arthur W. Ryder. 1917.