Advice on a missed opportunity in my past.
This story is a bit long winded so I apologise in advance. Where to begin...
I am from the United Kingdom. I went to stay with some friends in the country Iceland that I had made online, playing various online video games. My first trip there was for 2 months, from September 11th 2010 to 15th November 2010. Within that time, I started a relationship with a local girl, pretty much moved into her family home, with her parents. The relationship was good to begin, but it also had its sour moments within those 2 months, causing me to be not too sad when I left for home on the 15th November, at that time having no intentions to return.
Now, the frame of mind I was in, at this moment I was back in the UK with no immediate plans. I also had some friends from Denmark and Sweden who were aware I'd just came back home from Iceland, and they were encouraging me to go and stay in Sweden with them in a similar setup. Then, at that stage, after talking on and off with my at the time ex girlfriend from Iceland, she somehow persuaded me to go back to Iceland and give it another go, getting a job etc, our own place, the ideas sounded nice, although I was a bit tentative about the whole idea, I had infact fell in love with the country of Iceland.
So, I book a flight and all that back to Iceland, knowing that this girl wants to be with me alot more than I want to be with her. I know it's not that great an attitude to have but ahh well. I must admit, one of the main reasons for me not liking her as much as I did in the first place is that I found out, caught her red handed, she was pretty much an internet hoe, cybering dudes left and right. Anyway, back to the story. Fast forward to... 18th December 2010 and I'm sitting on a plane waiting to depart from Manchester airport, which stops in Glasgow before continuing to Keflavik.
I had the window seat, and along comes this young woman and sits in the seat next to me. No one else sits in our aisle. For about 10-15 minutes we sat in silence but after that we struck up conversation and ended up talking non-stop. I can't remember her name. She was Polish but was also living in Iceland. She was getting the plane to Glasgow however, because her sister was married and living in Edinburgh with her husband. She was going to visit them over Christmas, before returning to Iceland in January. We ended up having a pretty deep conversation about what we were both doing in Iceland, she got really kinda... emotional about me having the attitude because I wasn't too bothered about not spending Christmas with my family. She laughed at all my jokes, was always smiling, playing with her hair, all that stuff. We kept eye contact throughout (she had amazing eyes), she was in my opinion a very attractive woman. I was 24 and she must have been... no older than 25-26. I must admit I have never flirted with a complete stranger like that before or since, and never felt so comfortable doing it.
She told me she worked in the main mall in the capital Reykjavik, but I was staying in a smaller town about 40 miles outside. I couldn't remember the exact store name she said she worked. Anyway. We landed in Glasgow, the flight having seemed to fly by. She starts getting prepared to leave the plane, she asks me if I am getting off here, but says it in such a way like "oh, damn... you aren't getting off here are you? :(" and I just made a joke like, "nope, why you need someone to carry your bags or something?" and she replied "no, I wasn't thinking about that..." Then we say our goodbyes like, "nice to meet you" and all that stuff, and she is herded away up the plane towards the exit before I can really react, maintaining eye contact with me quite a distance before leaving. It was only after we had departed I came up with the bright idea I should have asked for her number, or gave her mine.
It wasn't crazy or over the top movie stuff or anything, it all actually happened quite fast, within an hour or so. Anyway, I get to Iceland, look this girl up on Facebook, can't find her, soon thereafter forget her name completely. I considered checking out the mall, but it's a pretty big place, what are the chances of finding one person working in there just random strolling around? Considering there's probably... 400-500 workers there on various shifts and rotas. Plus there's the fact I moved in with my gf at the time and her family, and I doubt they would have took kindly to that kinda stuff going on.
Anyway. It's now 11 months later, I moved back to England and am now engaged to another girl. However, I can't help thinking now and then, at quiet times when I am alone and I reminisce about Iceland... I can't help thinking back to that very sweet Polish girl I met on the plane, only never to be seen again. I would like to know, has anyone had anything like this happen to them before? Is it normal to still remember it so vividly this long after, even when I'm happily in a relationship? It's just strange to me, the thoughts of "what if?" remain with me. Just like the one that got away.
Thanks for reading. I know it's long and rambling. I will appreciate any advice or opinions given.
