When I was 19, my girlfriend at the time and I had what we called "a little break" from our one year relationship. We hadn't seen each other in a couple weeks, and it seemed like forever. One Saturday evening my friends and I went to Denny's for a burger and shake after an evening at the Rollercade. I saw my girlfriend amongst a group of people sitting at a table in the back of Denny's. This dude I had never seen before had his arm around her. I remember my heart pounding inside my chest. I was furious. I pretended to not see them, and my friends were trying to talk to me to get me to relax, and enjoy my food. About 15 minutes later her and the group of people she was with got up and walked up to the cashier to pay. She noticed me, and immediately looked away. The guy was holding her hand at the time, but didn't know who I was. They paid, and walked out the door. I jumped up from my seat, ran out the door behind them and sucker punched the guy right square on the side of his face. He fell to the ground like a sack of wet cement. My girlfriend screamed at me. I gave the guy (who was still on the ground wincing in pain) a hard kick to the ribs, and then went back inside Denny's. I basically went into a jealous rage of sorts. But here's the thing... That guy I ended up sucker punching, turned out to be one of the nicest people I had ever met. (we later talked about this incident many years later). He was a religious guy, a person who would never harm a fly. He ended up getting married to another woman several years later, and had several kids. A couple of decades later, he still stops and says hello if he bumps into me around town. In fact, last saw him at the Home Depot this past spring. Just the nicest, friendliest guy ever. I felt so bad about beating him up because of my jealousy.
