Re-Writes..."The Wrong Man"

“i saw something on television that made me pretty emotional. it’s weird, but only certain things make me respond like this. just situations that have something to do with romance. and only situations that i can see myself in. i was watching something the other day and i could see myself in the predicament. a man and a woman had known each other for years. they were born in the same small city and grew up in the same neighborhood. same schools, same friends, same everything. they practically lived the same life. and in this, they became best friends. sharing their secrets, the status of their love lives, their thoughts and wishes, their hopes and dreams. no one knew either of them better than they knew each other. they had tried dating each other once, but at that time it didn’t work out. so they continued to watch each other try to find love with other people, always failing, always finding others lacking something. that is, until the woman found someone and got her engaged. but even then, the fiancé was missing something, though he didn’t know it. he didn’t have her heart. it belonged to her best friend. and her best friend’s heart belonged to her. but both never admitted their feelings to themselves, let alone to each other. that is, until the night the woman was rushing off to her fiancé, with her best friend following after her in order to stop her. and that’s when it happened. the situation i could see myself in. in a hotel lobby, the man tried to convince the woman not to marry her fiancé. that she was marrying the wrong man. he told her he loved her. he proposed marriage. he asked her to give him one reason why she should marry her fiancé instead of him. and she couldn’t. he then told her that she couldn’t marry her fiancé instead of him. because he had loved her all their lives. that marrying her fiancé would be a mistake. and that she would be living the life they were supposed to have with somebody else. having the kids they were supposed to have with somebody else. growing old the way they were supposed to, together, with somebody else. he released all the feelings he had stored up over the years. and she responded. she asked him to propose to her again. and when he did, she said yes. this made me emotional because i could see myself doing that. the words, the setting, the situation, were all perfect. exactly the way i would have done it.”

sometime in '00 or '01, i don't remember the exact date.