Melissa Rendon

You had a truly excellent plan. Two romantic weeks with your incredible girlfriend Ana exploring her heritage on a road trip from Lima to Quito and then out to the Galapagos where you were planning on a remarkable proposal in front of the setting sun at the end of a wonderful Valentine's day. It was going to be beautiful. It didn't work. After a long sometimes confusing argument your relationship imploded in mid-January... she said you weren't romantic enough. You defended yourself explaining how hard you worked and that you couldn't do grand romantic gestures all the time, but that you loved her deeply. The specifics aren't that important. The important thing is that her timing was utterly miserable and you were on the hook for a flight to Lima that you couldn't get out of. So you called Melissa. You've known each other forever, since you were kids and watched Up together dreaming of a proper adventure someday. She was a safe invite. A friend that's been a little pudgy for most of the time you've known her. She's always been a friend and someone you'd defend if anyone dared make fun of her, but not someone you've had romantic feelings for. Maybe you could salvage it and make it a fun time catching up with a friend. Melissa is very up for it, you exchange a flurry of text messages about the trip, plans for surfing, dreams of Galapagos tortoises, the logistics of a potential road trip on the Pan-American Highway... it was a blast and by the time you met at the airport your pain at losing Ana was almost completely gone. And then you discovered that you hadn't actually seen a current picture of Melissa in awhile and... Wow.