Is this story beautiful or sad (or a bit creepy)?

[LadyRenoir]

I recently caught up with a friend. She told me a story which I keep on thinking about... Her mum attended a 30 year high school reunion.
Towards the end of the evening a guy came up to her and asked her if she was such and such, X Maiden Name. She said she was.
He then proceeded to tell her than 30 years ago he was madly in love with her from afar, but never mustered the courage to ask her. He was planning to ask her to go to prom with him, but again, was too afraid to come and talk to her (they were in different classes) and so never got to do it. So after the graduation he never saw her again until the reunion.

He then said that he also got married and had kids, but every day for the past 30 years he had been waking up regretting never speaking to friend's mum and imagining how his life would be different if he was braver, and how he pretty much had been miserable and unhappy waking up next to a woman he didnt love every morning. For 30 years.

And then he walked away.

At first we both thought awww, so romantic, to have someone who would love you so much even if they didnt really know wach other. But then I thought it's so sad that this man has spent the last 30 years pretty much regretting not speakign to someone that maybe/possibly would not be the right match, and how sad for his family to always be 'second best'...

This is a story indeed. Totally made up. No one would spend 30 years unhappy thinking about a girl from their teenage years especially one they never even spoke to.

Just to point out that High School is the default name in Scotland (and has been since the Middle Ages!) but agree that Prom is a more recent thing.

He was drunk. He saw someone he remembered once fancying, went over to flirt and got carried away.

@LadyRenoir
You're British and you say 'high school' not 'secondary'?
I'm shocked!
And as someone who left school in 1986 I can state that we certainly didn't have 'Proms'.
You might have had a bit of a disco, but not a Prom. We had nothing. You just left!

Actually in my mother tongue it' something more like 'grad ball', but that's not really a thing here either, so thought I'd sue a word people tend to be more familiar with :)

@leolion81 I didnt make it up, maybe the guy did, dont know why he would come up to friend's mum to tell her a weird lie and walk off?

@ElizabethMainwaring I am not British.

Being in love with the 'idea of her'

Indeed, how could his poor wife compete with an 'ideal woman' that never was.

How weird. Most of us had crushes when we were at school but we mature and move on from them. He sadly never did.

Sorry op, that was quite an assumption on my part!

I didn't mean you made it up, I suspect the friends mother embellished the story. Guy might have said he fancied her in school but I call bollocks on the rest of it.

I feel sorry for his wife

People think about "what if". This sounds like extreme case of it. If he was happy, he would have forgotten about her and moved on, but he just idealised this girl who he really didn't know over the years. Sad story for me. The wife deserved better.

Elizabeth Mainwaring you're easily shocked . I've always referred to 'High School'. I went to X High School. Before my children's school became an academy, it was Y High School. The three tier system still exists.

The man was a plank, not romantic. Feel sorry for his wife.

I'm British and went to a high school. It's embroidered into the jumpers and everything.

He didn't know her, he was in love with an idea of who he thought she was. Majorily creepy that he held on to it for 30 years

Every day's a (high) school day!

Pretty obsessive of him really. And fairly crap for his wife of 30 years.

It sounds like «Last Tango in Halifax»
If they had dated things would possibly have fizzled out after a while anyway.
It sounds as though he has been unsatisfied in his real life so has built up a massive fantasy of what could have been.
What a waste of his time.

Actually, now I think about it, was it actually 'high school' before it was called secondary?
My school was just called The Blank School.

Weird fantasist

I'm not sure I believe any of it. Either the man was drunk, as someone has said, or the mother has got a bit carried away in relating the evening and what was said and by whom.

he pretty much had been miserable and unhappy waking up next to a woman he didnt love every morning. For 30 years

Totally abdicating responsibility for his own unhappiness and dumping it on a virtual stranger. Nasty.

I suspect that he’s the one who has embellished somewhat. Most likely he fancied her back in high school, recognised her and thought maybe now he could make his move so he mentioned that he had woken up thinking about her for the past 30 years hoping she would find it romantic and feel sorry for him that he’d obviously been unhappy in his marriage for all that time and she could finally let him find happiness....

I actually had a similar conversation recently except I did go out with this bloke and then moved so we split up.

Over the years we sort of stayed in touch, and then recently he told me about how unhappy he’s always been in his life,never stopped thinking about me, and knows that if we’d stayed together we would have been together always.

I actually do think that he believes that. However I also know that he is led very much by his emotions at the time, and that what you think would have happened when you were younger rarely turns out to be the case.

Aside from which he’s now been married four times 😱

There are lots of high schools about the place. It's not that shocking!

The crush in high school would have been a sweet story. The carry on about 30 years of longing for someone he didn't actually know well enough to love, and the utter disregard for his wife, was creepy.

And probably made up as he was probably hoping she'd sleep with him.

So what was the woman's side/reply?

He never asked her out?

It's not as if they were in love but circumstances tore them apart!

He sounds pathetic.