Going back to my analogy of a shaken snow globe, that was my life.

Shaken.

Hours of driving had given me a new perspective, one that benefited from a bit of distance. I knew there were many people who faced greater obstacles and more adversity. I also wasn’t the princess in the ivory tower that many believed me to be.

My eyes narrowed as I tried to make out the road before me. The headlights created a tunnel of illumination filled with glistening large snowflakes above a thick white blanket.

“Come on, you can make it. Just” —I looked again at the GPS— “another hour.”

My stomach growled as I held tighter to the steering wheel, feeling the way the wind gusts pushed me sideways. I shook my head, wondering if I’d see any signs of civilization: a gas station or small town. The darker the sky became as my car plowed through the accumulating snow, the more I admitted to myself that I should have stopped in the last town.

As I crept onward, the phrase ‘should have’ seemed to repeat on a loop in my thoughts.

I should have stopped in the last town, filled the gas tank, gotten something to eat, and found a hotel.

I should have said no to Skylar Butler when he asked me to marry him. I should have seen the writing on the wall. I should have discouraged my parents from planning the most lavish wedding of the century. I should have known his parents were more excited about our nuptials than he was. I should have questioned Skylar’s schedule, his trips, and the times he didn’t answer his cell phone. I should have trusted what I’d known most of our lives.

In my defense, as the sayings went, hindsight was twenty-twenty and love was blind.

In my case, I think a more accurate assessment of our impending nuptials was that our love didn’t have vision problems; it quite simply never existed, not in the way that made your heart beat faster or your mouth go dry. It wasn’t that Skylar wasn’t easy on the eyes.

He was handsome and he knew it.

That had been an issue since we were young.

Skylar was also capable when it came to foreplay.

Further than that, and I was in the minority of women in Skylar’s orbit. I didn’t know if the rumors of his sexual prowess were accurate. We’d agreed to wait for that final consummation of our relationship. That’s not to say we hadn’t gotten close. The thing was, we’d been a couple since either of us could walk or talk. It was difficult to think of one another in romantic terms.

The agreement of remaining pure was implied.

Apparently, it was an agreement between Skylar and me, not him and...well, anyone else.