At 67, I Took My First Vacation to Malta and Decided to Say ‘Yes’ to Everything – I Never Expected to Find Love Again
“He risked losing me for 11 years.”
“I know.”
“No, David. You know what your wife did. You do not know what my husband did to me.”
He accepted that without defending himself.
It made my anger harder to hold in one shape.
“Did Ruth know Michael died?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She kept track of your family online.”
A chill moved through me.
“Is that how you recognized me?”
David nodded.
“There were photographs in the box. One of you and Michael at your daughter’s wedding. Another from an anniversary dinner.”
I stood.
“You saw me wandering around Valletta with my map upside down, and you knew exactly who I was.”
“Yes.”
“You laughed and asked if it was my first time in Malta.”
“Yes.”
“You pretended we were strangers.”
“I was going to introduce myself and give you the envelope.”
“But you didn’t.”
“No.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the harbor.
“Because you smiled at me.”
I waited.
“That sounds foolish now,” he said. “But you looked lost, then started laughing at yourself. I had spent months imagining you as a name on an envelope. Suddenly you were a person.”
“So you took me for coffee.”
“I told myself it was only coffee.”
“Then breakfast.”
“Yes.”
“Gozo.”
“Yes.”
“My final dinner.”
His voice dropped.
“Yes.”
Every memory changed as he admitted it.
The coffee that had felt spontaneous.
The ferry ride where he held my hand when the deck shifted.
The afternoon he bought me lemon ice and wiped sugar from my thumb.
The quiet moment beside the sea when he said he was glad I had said yes.
I had thought life brought us together.
David had recognized me.
Followed me.
Chose not to tell me why.
“You used me,” I said.
“At first, I wanted answers.”
“What answers?”
“I wanted to know whether Michael had ruined your life the way Ruth’s secret ruined mine.”
I stared at him.
“Did I look ruined?”
“No.”
“Did that disappoint you?”
His face twisted.
“At first? Maybe.”
The honesty was ugly but I appreciated it anyway.
David had spent six years believing his marriage to Ruth was honest.
Then, after her death, he found another life hidden inside it.
He came to Malta because this was where it began.
