Featured story - A romantic lifeslip 

heartbreaker, fate maker

I joined an online dating service in 2001 and, after a few disappointing dates, my online profile caught the eye of a man in Boston. I live in Los Angeles, but heck, what’s a few thousand miles, right??? We exchanged several e-mails before I gave this guy Ethan my phone number. Hours of phone calls later, I agreed to fly to Boston and meet in person. He’d sent me his picture. He was handsome, smart, funny, and available.

I’d never been to Boston before, so I figured worst-case scenario, I’d learn a new city if my date wound up a dud. No chance of that, I thought, when I saw him waiting at the gate, flowers in hand: Ethan was drop-dead gorgeous – and he was mine!

We spent that first day, a Friday, touring Boston, then had dinner at Faneuil Hall. I was head over heels for this guy. That night, he dropped me off at my hotel with a goodnight kiss and promises of more fun the next day. I went to bed dreaming about our future.

The next day came and went. Nothing. No call, no messages. Nearly two days passed before I heard from him again. He rang my cell Sunday night, apologizing for disappearing; mumbling something about a crisis at work, and then said I was “a really great girl.” He said he was leaving the next day for an unexpected business trip. I hung up, sick to my stomach. What a jerk!

I frantically started cramming my clothes into my suitcase, checked out of the hotel early, and got a shuttle to the airport. I screamed at myself inside my head for being such an idiot. I forked over all the cash in my wallet at the American Airlines ticket counter to change my flight to the first available flight back to Los Angeles.

I cried the whole trip home. How pathetic to think a total stranger in Boston would fall in love with me. I hibernated all the next day, alone in my apartment, blinds closed.

I was getting ready for work Tuesday morning, putting on my makeup in the bathroom, when I flipped on the radio. I nearly passed out. American Airlines Flight 11 out of Boston en route to LAX – my original flight – had just crashed into the World Trade Center. I would’ve been on that plane, had Ethan been the man of my dreams.

- Christine, San Diego