The bridge rose ten stories, maybe more, above the Savannah River. I never looked down when I drove across it. I am afraid of heights. And the bridge was narrow, with two thin lanes each way. There was no central divider, just a line of plastic reflective markers. I braced myself each time we crossed that monster.

But we liked going to Savannah, the next big town over from Hilton Head, on Saturday nights. The riverwalk was lined with restaurants and stores that sold souvenirs. That evening, I decided to go upscale and invited my fiancée to the Hyatt Riverwalk.

There was a band playing in the lounge and they were taking requests. I was never one to go up and ask for a song, I usually do not remember the song names, just a few lines so I was hesitant when my fiancé suggested that I ask the band to play a song.

‘Which one?’

‘The song that we like. By Willie Nelson.’

‘Oh! That one.’ I did not sound too convincing to myself.

I sauntered across the dance floor and asked the keyboard player if he would play, ‘For All the Girls I Loved Before,’ by Willie Nelson.

And I added, ‘I’d like to dedicate the song to my fiancée.’

When I was walking back, he announced loudly, ‘This gentleman would like to dedicate the next song to his fiancée.’

And they launched into, ‘For all the girls I loved before,

Who’ve traveled in and out my door.

You are the one for me, I am as happy as can be.

 For all the girls I loved before.’

I felt that everyone in the lounge had stopped doing whatever they were doing and were looking at me. But my food, a cheese plate had arrived and I dug in. I smiled and applauded when the band finished the song. I was the only one clapping.

It was late that night when we drove back across that ten-story tall monster bridge. I was leaning forward in my seat, gripping the steering wheel of my Nissan Sentra with headlights from the opposite direction close to blinding me, when it struck me. Not physically. Literally.

The song she was thinking of was, ‘You are always on my mind.’

‘Little thing I should have said and done.

I never took the time,

You were always on my mind.’

We never made it back to the Hyatt. When we got married, the deejay played Willie Nelson. The right one.