A Life Well Lived

Authors Note: This is another short one that popped into my head the other day. Enjoy.

Oh, and yes, a requirement to graduate from high school in the Province of Ontario, Canada, is to complete 40 hours of volunteer work.

All characters involved with any sexual activity are 18 or older. All of my works on this site are copywritten by CurrentParameter and may only be used or reused with permission.

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Although the school year wasn't done and he still had finals to look forward to, Rick was ecstatic. He just submitted his real-time programming assignment and finally, after weeks of all-nighters at the University of Waterloo, he could finally relax a bit.

It had been a really tough term. He had made the mistake of taking the real-time programming course and the compilers course in the same term. Two of the most time-intensive courses in the program.

However, he now had time to make things up to his girlfriend, Jenny. He hadn't really been able to spend any time with her trying to get these projects done. Now, he had time for a breather before jumping into his last set of final exams before graduating. He hoped the flowers and dinner tonight would help make it up to her.

He had met Jenny at the local food bank. No, they didn't need to use the food bank. They were volunteers there. He was a year ahead of Jenny.

To make up the required volunteer hours at his high school, he volunteered at the local food bank in his hometown. When he came to Waterloo for university, he decided to continue and volunteered when school allowed.

He met Jenny the next year during frosh week. He was tasked to show any new volunteers the ropes and Jenny was one of those volunteers. Now, it wasn't one of those love at first sight, or she is so beautiful that he started stalking her situations. They had just seen each other at the Food Bank and on campus a few times, and after spending that time together, Rick thought that there might be something there, so he got up the nerve and asked her out. Jenny was a cute brunette. Just a few inches shorter than his 5'10" frame. He loved her dimples and the cute mole she had on her cheek.

He wasn't just looking forward to finishing his finals because he was graduating, but he had just picked up an engagement ring. Once they had both finished their exams, he was going to take her to dinner and propose. He already has a job lined up as a software developer for a local company, so he and Jenny would both be in Waterloo while she finished her last year.

They both lived in the North Three building in the Village One residence. He was on the guys' only first floor, and she was on the girls' second floor.

He bounded up the stairs and was just about to turn the corner when he heard Jenny arguing with someone.

She yelled, "It was just the one time. I have a boyfriend. Just go away in case he shows up."

The guy replied, "Come on, I know you had fun. You told me that I was the best. Let's go out tonight and have some more fun."

Rick just stood there, stunned. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. He dropped the flowers.

Jenny said, "Wait, what's that?" She walked around the corner and gasped when she saw Rick. She pleaded, "Rick, it's not what you think?"

The other guy walked around the corner. Rick recognized him from the basketball team. He grinned at Rick and said, "You are a lucky guy. She's great in the sack."

Rick was destroyed inside but didn't want to show any sign of weakness in front of the basketball player. He took a breath and leveled his eyes on Jenny. He said, "You can have her. I am just glad to find out what she is really like now before I proposed to her after finals."

Jenny fell to her knees and screamed, "Rick!"

Rick turned and walked out. As he was walking down the stairs, he knew that he did not want to walk to his room. Jenny would be there in a minute.

He knew that there was a classmate in one of the other buildings in the village. He took a chance to see if they were around. The village was such a maze that he gambled that Jenny wouldn't see him head that way.

His phone started to buzz and ring. He looked at it and saw it was Jenny. He muted it.

After a few minutes, he arrived at Chen's room. Chen opened the door. Rick asked, "Can I hide out for a while?"

Chen nodded, and Rick went inside. Rick sat on Chen's bed and explained what had happened before the emotions overwhelmed him. He broke down crying.

Chen sat beside him and put an arm around Rick's shoulders. He said, "I'm so sorry, Rick. We all thought you were lucky and that Jenny was quite the catch."

Rick said, "What am I going to do? I can't go back to my room. She is on the floor above."

Chen thought for a minute. He said, "Wait, didn't Bill move in with his girlfriend? He lives off-campus. Maybe you could stay there? When is your last exam?"

Rick thought, "April 18th."

Chen said, "You have what? Three and a half weeks? If Bill is good, then you are gold and use studying for exams to get her out of your head. We are going around the last bend with the finish line in sight."

Rick nodded his head. He took a breath and straightened out. He said, "Thanks, that would work. Could you call him? I'll go to the lounge. I have to call my mom."

Rick was still destroyed, but there is nothing like a call with your mom and dad to help get your head straight. They were as broken up as Rick was. They really liked Jenny and knew that Rick was planning to propose. They had lent him the money for the ring. They were already thinking of her as their daughter. His mom did say, "Call her. I'm not saying to take her back, but get the call over with now. Tell her that you are done and not to contact you. You have your exams ahead of you, and you don't need this hanging over your head any more than it already is and screwing up your exams."

Rick thanked them and told them he would call them later with an update.

When he arrived back at Chen's room, Chen said, "Good news, Bill says you can move in. He still has a lot of things there, though."

Rick thought for a minute. He said, "I don't need all my stuff. Just enough to live and study, I can use my meal plan anywhere on campus. I can always slip back to my room to get what I need whenever I need it."

Chen's phone then rang. He answered it and talked to the other person on the line for a minute. The last thing he said was, "Don't worry, I'll tell him."

Rick asked, "What?"

Chen said, "That was Bill. Evidently, Jenny has been calling everyone and their mother. She called his girlfriend to see if she knew where you were."

Rick asked, "She didn't..."

Chen cut him off. "She didn't tell her anything. She was cheated on by a previous boyfriend, so she has no tolerance for it. However, maybe you should talk to Jenny. At least to settle her down so that she knows you are all right and not going to kill yourself or something."

Rick nodded, "My mother said the same."

Rick pulled out his phone. He took a deep breath and clicked her contact. She picked up after one ring.

She spoke a mile a minute, "Rick, are you OK? I'm so sorry. Can we talk? Where are you?"

Rick rolled his eyes. He said, "Jenny....Jenny...settle down. How about we meet in ten minutes in the cafeteria and talk? OK?"

Jenny desperately said, "Yes. Yes...anything.....I'll see you then."

Rick looked at Chen and said, "Might as well get this over with."

Chen and Rick walked down to the cafeteria. Rick did some thinking on the walkover and came up with a plan.

Jenny was already there, sitting at a table in a corner of the cafeteria. You could tell that she had been crying.

Rick sat across from her. She started, "Rick, I'm so sorry, it was a one-time thing? You weren't around. I know you were working on a project, and I was at a party, and it happened."

Rick stared at her and repeated, "It happened."

Jenny started to cry. She said, "Yes, I'm sorry."

Rick took a breath. He decided he needed to use his plan. He reached across and grabbed one of her hands. He said, "Look, I know you're sorry, but I have to figure this out. Also, we both have to get through exams. I need space to think and study. Your last exam is on the 19th, right?"

Jenny nodded.

Rick said, "Well, you study, I'll study, and on the night of the 19th, we will get together and figure this out, OK."

Jenny sniffed, wiped her face with a tissue, and said, "OK, I understand. I can do that. Can I contact you?"

Rick said, "No. I'll contact you on the 18th after my last exam to arrange a time. I just need space to figure this out, but now my priority has to be graduating and my exams."

Jenny sniffed again and stood. She said, "OK, I'll give you space. I do love you. I'm so sorry." She went to walk away. Rick saw Chen walking forward out of the corner of his eye.

Jenny turned and asked, "Do we have a chance?"

Rick gave her a strained smile and said, "A chance."

Jenny gave him a brief smile before turning and running away.

Chen came up behind him and asked, "Really? A chance?"

Rick turned to him, "Yeah, a chance in hell." That caused Chen to chuckle.

Rick asked, "Did you hear?"

Chen said, "Yeah. Are you really going to meet with her?"

Rick said, "I will, but not for what she thinks. I'll officially end it, then. I was thinking of something my parents said. If I tried to end it now, I know her. She would constantly be trying to track me down. Maybe even show up at the exam rooms. I don't need that. This bought me time. On the 19th, my parents are picking up me and my stuff to go back home. I'll meet with her long enough to tell her that it is officially over and that she needs to find a place for the summer. Like me, she was going to temporarily move home. "

He continued, "I don't start work until the first full week of May, and I don't take possession of my new apartment until the weekend before work. She was supposed to move in with me, but since I'm working, the lease is in my name, so no complications."

Chen nodded.

That night, they waited until two in the morning, and then Chen, Bill, and Bill's girlfriend helped Rick take what he needed out of his room and moved him into Bill's.

Rick thanked Bill.

Bill replied, "No problem. I'm sorry to hear about you and Jenny,"

Bill's girlfriend gave him a hug. She said, "You're a good-looking guy. You will find someone else. Just be glad you found out about her now."

Rick, trying to keep Jenny out of his thoughts, doubled down on studying. In the end, he was actually impressed with himself because the exams went better than any he had taken before.

After his last exam was done, he let Jenny back into his thoughts. He called her. He told her that he would meet her in the cafeteria after her exam at 6:00.

That next day, His parents helped him pack everything up, and everything was loaded into the van.

His parents sat in the van while he waited for Jenny in the cafeteria. He saw her walk in and look around for him. When she saw him, she initially smiled, showing the dimples he had fallen in love with, but after seeing the serious look on his face, she started to frown.

She tentatively came over. She asked, "You aren't eating with me, are you?"

Rick sighed, "No, I'm eating with my parents on the way home."

She sat and asked, "And us?"

Unlike the last visit, Rick didn't take her hand. He said, "I've had time to think this over. You broke my heart and, even more importantly, my trust. I can't go through that again. I'm sorry, but we are done."

Jenny started to cry. She said, "I'm sorry."

He said, "I'm sorry too. I was ready to spend the rest of my life with you."

Jenny cried some more. He then added, "This also means that you won't be moving in with me in May."

She stopped crying and stared at him, "What do you mean?"

Rick didn't answer. He stood and said, "Goodbye, Jenny. I hope you find some happiness."

She started to ball as he walked away.

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In May, Rick didn't have that move-in that he had initially been expecting with Jenny. The place looked empty compared to when the two of them had picked it out two months ago.

His parents helped him settle in. He needed more furniture but had enough to start out. On Monday, he had a great first day at the job. He met with the team, and they all went out for dinner and drinks that night to welcome him to the company.

He settled in, but by mid-May, he realized that he was lonely. All his friends were off to the other corners of Canada. He sometimes talked to them to compare first-week stories, but things were still lonely in the apartment. He realized that he needed something else to keep him busy.

When he walked into the Food Bank, he saw Terry. She was the manager. She saw him and smiled. She said, "Rick, so good to see you. It's been a while. Did your finals go well?"

Rick smiled. Terry was the heart and soul of the Food Bank. He hugged her and said, "They went really well. I graduated and started work here in town. Now that I am settled, I needed something to do, so I thought I would help out again."

Terry smiled, "That's great. We always need the help." She then made a motion like she was looking behind him. She asked, "Jenny?"

Rick took a breath and shook his head. "We broke up. It wasn't meant to be."

Terry said, "Sorry to hear that."

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Rick's job was going well, and he settled back in at the Food Bank.

Then, a couple of months in, he got a call from Jenny.

He sat straight when he saw the number. He answered the phone but didn't speak.

Jenny was on the phone. She sounded tired and like she had been crying.

She said, "Rick, are you there?"

Rick replied, "Yes."

She sniffled, "Rick, I'm pregnant."

Rick sat there stunned. He didn't know what to say other than "OK."

She said, "The Doctor thinks I'm three months along."

Rick sat there thinking for a few minutes. They had always used condoms, but when he was working on the end-of-term projects, he didn't have the energy for sex. He was about to ask when Jenny cut him off.

She said, "I'm pretty sure it isn't yours, but I needed to talk to someone, anyone."

Rick asked, "Have you talked to....." He didn't remember the guy's name, "....the father?"

She cried some more, "I've been trying, but we haven't been able to find him yet. He might have gone away for the summer at a basketball camp. I don't even know where he is from."

Rick felt genuinely sorry for her but also knew that this wasn't his problem. He asked, "Did you try calling the university? Explain the situation."

She perked up on the other end of the phone and said, "I hadn't thought that."

The phone was dead for a couple of minutes.

Jenny said, "Well, thanks for taking my call. This is on me. Thanks for listening."

Rick said, "Good luck." And then they both hung up.

Rick stared at the phone for a while, lost in thoughts. He finally said out loud to no one, "That should have been Jenny and my baby."

He then crawled into bed and cried himself to sleep.

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The summer was over, and Rick took a half day off to help with another crop of potential volunteers during frosh week. He was happily surprised when he had help in the form of a beautiful blonde named Helen.

They always seemed to be volunteering at the same time, and one day, Helen came up to him and asked, "You keep checking out my ass. Why don't you ask me to dinner?"

Rick gulped as she charmed him with her beautiful smile. He paused and realized he had nothing to lose. "So, do you want to go to dinner?"

She giggled. "I thought you would never ask."

It was as if his life turned around on a dime. He hadn't seen Helen before because she had spent the summer visiting relatives in Europe.

She, on the other hand, knew everything about him. As it turned out, her mother was Terry, the woman who managed the Food Bank, and her father, coincidently, owned the software company he worked at.

Helen and Rick hit it off and fell hard for each other. After a year, Rick proposed, and they were married six months later. After a few years, they had two daughters, Rachel and two years later, Suzanne.

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Years later, Helen had taken over managing the Food Bank from her mother, and Rick had been on a different trajectory within the company than he had imagined all those years ago. After he had started to work himself up the ranks, his father-in-law decided that Rick was the right person to take over when he retired. He had Rick work a year or so in each area of the business.

It was a holiday weekend, and the entire family was working at the Food Bank, handing out holiday boxes.

Rachel, now 16, and Suzanne, 14, assembled the boxes while Rick handed them out.

Rick was handing out the next box when he saw her. She looked a lot older and very worn down, but he would have recognized the mole on her cheek regardless of her age or appearance. It was Jenny. He looked behind her. There was a woman who looked like Jenny when he had met her, carrying a baby, and then two boys in their teens following.

He asked, "Jenny?"

It took her a minute to focus before the look of recognition crossed her face. She looked shocked and asked, "Rick?"

He nodded.

She smiled and asked, "Still volunteering after all these years?"

He chuckled and replied, "I don't have a choice, my wife manages this place."

She frowned, "You're married?"

He smiled, "Yep, and my daughters are over there assembling these boxes." He waved at them, and they waved back.

He then asked, "Are you?"

She sighed, and her shoulders drooped. "Not at the moment, but with the three kids and now a granddaughter, I don't have much time to find someone new."

He said, "Well, if you need anything, we are here to help." He then grabbed a bag of diapers and formula from another pile. He handed it to her. She passed it to one of her boys.

She said, "Thanks." She then looked sad and lost in thought, as if thinking back to mistakes and lost opportunities.

She said, "Maybe I will see you around."

He stood and watched her, her children, and her granddaughter leave.

Rachel came up to him and put an arm around his waste.

She asked, "Who was that?"

He smiled and said, "Believe it or not, an ex-girlfriend."

Rachel looked astonished and asked, "You dated her?"

He looked down and smiled at her. He said, "Yep." He then had a faraway look on his face.

Rachel asked, "What are you thinking?"

He looked at the door Jenny left through. "Oh, it won't make any sense to you, but I was reminded of a phrase, 'The best revenge is a life well-lived.'"