Jude called Erica. "Guess what, honey?" he asked. "Next month is our fourth anniversary." He had already bought her a nice card. She said yes, next month would mark the fourth year that they had known each other. "'Known' each other?" Jude repeated. He corrected her, saying that it would mark the fourth year that they had been in love with each other. Erica laughed. "Not hardly," she said. "For the first two years, yes, I was madly in love with you. You were my king. I would have done anything for you. Then I made the biggest mistake of my life: I asked you to marry me, and you said no! How many times had you sworn your love to me? But when you had a chance to back up your words with action, you chickened out. You didn't love me at all!" He told her that he hadn't "chickened out." He just hadn't been ready to marry her at that particular time. "What does that mean?" she had asked him. He couldn't explain what it meant, but he did everything from that day on to win her love again. After a year of chasing her, he finally caught her, and her heart, again. "So," she explained, "for the first two years I loved you. The third year, you loved me. The fourth year, we both loved each other. So, next month is actually our first anniversary of being in love with each other at the same time!" After thinking about this, Jude went back to Target the next day and bought Erica a "Happy First Anniversary" card.
