When v. Until

A short story, based off of a dream last night....

		    When v. Until

I found myself in a room with my friend and his ex.
I'm not quite sure how that happened.  She hates me
and had been avoiding me for years.  And I was under
the impression that she was not especially happy with
him, ESPECIALLY considering the circumstances of the
breakup.

While I pondered these things, he was talking to me.
"I asked her if she will take me back when North
America slams into Asia ten billion years from now."

Geologic time.  I laughed.  Applying geologic time to
humans was funny.  I laughed.  This was so many times
worse than the time I was nineteen and I told the
22-year old I had a crush on that I would look her up
in ten years (shoot, that's soon; what if I do see her
again?)

I buy into the philosophy that laughter is good for
you.  So when I do laugh out loud, I laugh out loud.
I don't hold anything back.  I once scared off a date
because I enjoyed her company and laughed loudly at
her jokes.  Well, she WAS funny.

So I laughed loudly.

Then I ran back my mental tape recorder to listen to
what he had said.

"I asked her if she will take me back UNTIL North
America slams into Asia ten billion years from now."

Wow.  That was a different statement.  For the guy who
hates to make any long-term commitments---and is not
particularly good at keeping short-term commitments---
10^10 years was as close to forever as he would ever
come.

THAT was a big deal.  And I had no idea he felt this
way about her.  I had no idea that he had EVER felt
this way about her.

And I had laughed.  I didn't have to turn my head to
see the emotions on her face.  I didn't want to see
the shock and hatred on her face.  I didn't want to
see the disappointment on his face.

I got up and left the room without looking at them.

I had made an jackass out of myself yet again.