The Choice

by Nicholas Sparks

Stories are as unique as the people who tell them, and the best stories are those in which the ending is a surprise.

There had been a long period of time during which he remembered being very happy. But things change. People change. Change was one of the inevitable laws of nature, exacting its toll on people’s lives. Mistakes are made, regrets

form, and all that was left were repercussions that made something as simple as rising from the bed seem almost laborious.

He seldom thought about finding permanence or his soul mate, but in the rare times he did, he always ended up imagining finding someone who shared the same active, outdoor passions he did.

Usually he just went about his life, doing what needed to be done and figuring out ways to enjoy the rest of his time. That was one of the great things about being single: A person could pretty much do what he wanted, whenever he wanted, and introspection was only an option.

A moment later, they were kissing passionately, and when he lay beside her afterward, he told her how much he loved her.

“That staring at the stars was like staring backward in time, since some stars are so far away that their light takes millions of years just to reach us. That we see stars not as they look now, but as they were when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The whole concept just struck me as… amazing somehow.”

If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale.

The candles burned lower, and they poured the last of the wine into their glasses, both aware that they were sitting across from a person who just might change the course of their lives forever if they weren’t careful.

Marriage, each of them realized intuitively, was about compromise and forgiveness.