Captain, I’m Marrying Someone Else

For five years, Irene loved Captain Carson with everything she had. She memorized his flight schedule, booked tickets just to fly his routes, woke at 2 a.m. for his landings, and quit her job in Seattle to follow him to a city where she knew no one. She believed he would propose—that one day he’d kneel in the terminal and the crowd would cheer. But Carson never saw her as a girlfriend. To him, Irene was convenient—a warm body, always available, someone to practice on while he figured out what a real woman wanted. The woman he actually loved was Blair, a prostitute he kept on retainer between layovers. When Irene learned the truth, her heart didn’t crack—it flatlined. She didn’t cry or scream. She smiled, took a breath, and said yes to the sweet boy next door who had quietly loved her for years. A year later, Carson discovered Blair was a cold-blooded gold digger who had been mocking him all along. Broke and broken, he showed up at Irene’s door, begging for the girl he threw away. He was ten months too late. Irene didn’t even look up from signing her marriage license.