Sweethearts #99

A woman narrates how she and Ben drove down a country road early in their relationship and never turned to face each other afterward, with Ben dating her less frequently until a girl stopped by to collect funds for a Christmas party, prompting him to give an engagement gift to Delores and creating obvious jealousy. After discovering Ben and Delores are engaged, the narrator confronts Ben at his office, but he explains he was playing for keeps and imagined a future with Delores, claiming he would never marry the narrator. Later, Neil proposes to the narrator by a moonlit pond, but she hesitates, confessing she must tell him about a past relationship with someone named Charley first; when she later attempts to end her engagement to tell Neil about Charley, she finds Neil has left, seemingly having learned of her former involvement. The narrator then encounters a man named Larry at a diner, and when she questions his sudden disappearance years earlier, he admits he was too frightened that something might go wrong with their relationship. Finally, Selma gives the narrator fifty dollars as a personal reward, and the narrator reflects that Irene's absence has stirred her feelings, revealing she was afraid to admit her love and call off an engagement to Selma, leading Irene to suggest the narrator find someone else to do what she couldn't do better.