Page 76 of 7 Days and 7 Nights

If she needed more proof of Matt’s feelings about commitment and the likelihood of his ever sharing a life with someone, she had it. He had no respect for women in general or for her in particular. To him, everything was one big joke. What she wouldn’t give to shake some sense into him.

“Okay, everybody, our next caller is Michael. And his story is a little different than the last one we heard, though the end result is the same. Michael, you’re on the air.”

“Hi, Matt.”

“Michael. Did your escape land you in the hospital?”

“Actually, it landed me in Missouri.”

There was a pause, and Matt laughed. “We’re all ears.”

“Well, Meredith and I took skydiving lessons together. We’d been talking about maybe getting married one day, and the next thing I know, we’re planning to get married during a jump.”

“That’s one way to keep the guest list small.”

“Yeah, it was going to be just the two of us. A friend who’s a notary was going to marry us on the way down.”

“You’re not going to tell me someone’s chute didn’t open?”

“No, everyone walked away from that jump. Well, actually, I flew away.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, as soon as the plane started climbing, I started having doubts, you know?”

“About jumping?”

“No, about getting married.”

“Uh-oh."

“Yeah, that’s what I thought. So I’m starting to panic a little, you know. We’re approaching jumping altitude, and the plane’s starting to level off, and I don’t think I can go through with it. Only there’s no time to discuss it. We’re really close to our jump site, and Meredith and the notary are already moving over to the open doorway.”

“So what did you do?”

“Well, it was too loud in the plane to talk, and shouting that I don’t want to get married seemed, I don’t know, it’s just not something you yell at somebody, you know?

“So we leveled off at twelve thousand feet, and Meredith unhooked her lead line, flashed me this big smile, and jumped. Our friend, the notary, went right after her. And I’m standing there, you know, like my feet are nailed to the floor of the plane or something.”

“Jeez, man. You just let her float away?”

“It was kind of surreal. I saw their chutes open—hers had a red heart painted on it for the wedding—and I saw them both look up, but it was too late. I paid the pilot to drop me at a small rural airport in the next state, and I just laid low for a while.”

“Wow.”

"Yeah. It was a narrow escape.”

“Did you ever see Meredith again?”

“Not really. She wouldn’t talk to me after that. I heard a while later that she married our sky diving instructor. He evidently made it out of the plane with no problem.”

Matt laughed. “You see, guys, it’s never too late. Right up until the moment you say ‘I do,’ you can decide you don’t. Don’t forget to call and make your pledges to the food bank. This isGuy Talk... where a guy can be a guy.”

And so it went, each story worse than the last. One caller had jumped ship, literally, diving headfirst off the cruise ship booked for his wedding. Another fled back down the aisle of the church with his fiancee and the flower girl clinging to the tails of his morning coat.

Olivia’s slow burn began to build. She forced herself to listen to every word, took in every annoying barb and chuckle, all of it a slap in the face to every woman who had ever expected anything from the man she loved.

She wondered if he really thought all women were just grasping, needy beings trying to trap a man into taking that walk to the altar. She wanted to go out there and yank him out of his chair and show him just how full of shit he was.