text: Logline: A married family man rediscovers a box that holds an opportunity to rekindle an old relationship, but there are difficulties reaching out to the past to improve your current situation. \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Brandon O'Connor, 30 years old, married for three years to his wife, Darcy, two children, Brianna and Robbie, and a home in the burbs. It's not uncommon for Brandon to receive a honey-do list the size of his arm on the weekend, a shopping list containing items like goji berries and spirulina, whatever they might be, and family commitments scheduled during his beloved football games. This weekend was especially irritating for Brandon, Darcy is looking to start a garden in the backyard, but a few years ago, they removed the outdoor water faucets and forgot where they put them. Now, Brandon has the daunting job of finding the faucets in a basement stocked wall-to-wall with boxes. As Brandon looked through boxes, he came across an older box from when he was in college. Curious, he opened it to show his long-forgotten past, notes, textbooks, old movie ticket stubs, and his old cell phone and charger. Brandon couldn't believe that he used this thing; it barely had the internet. He plugged the phone into the wall, and it turned on! Notwithstanding, the service being turned off years earlier, he found an unread text message; it must have been sent as soon as the service was shut off. He opens it up; it's from his ex-girlfriend, Jordan Campbell. "I'm sorry the way things ended; I want to give it another try, call me please, I love you." Brandon is in disbelief, he starts to imagine what might have happened if he saw this text before the phone shut off? Life may have been nothing like what it looks like now. He starts to dwell on the text; maybe we could reconnect? "Nah, I'm a married man with kids, I can't be messing around with notions like that," Brandon says in his head. "Brandon, did you find those faucets yet, jeez, I asked you to do the smallest little thing, and it takes you all morning!" Darcy yells from upstairs, needling at Brandon's patience. He stares at his old phone, enters Jordan’s old number as a contact in his current phone, what are the odds the numbers are still the same? He's about to text her but gives it a second thought. "Brandon, bring up a jug of bleach, the kids got dirt all over the couch, and it won't come out," Darcy yells from upstairs. Brandon takes a deep breath and quickly fires off a text before going to grab the bleach. "Hey Jordan, it's Brandon, long time no see. Saw your number, was thinking about you, wondering if you wanted to get together and catch up?" It was two days until Jordan got back to him, "Wow! Brandon, what a blast from the past. Lunch, Alonzo's, 1 p.m. on Thursday?" Jordan's text read. Brandon was in the middle of a tough day at work, Darcy nagging him how about collecting money for Brianna's Girl Scout cookies and reminding him, for the tenth time, that he had to bring Robbie to taekwondo practice. He thought about lunch with Jordan the whole day, finally, when he got to his car at the end of that long day, he texted, "Sounds good, I'll see you then." When he pressed the send button, he felt guilty, but at the same time, he was only enjoying lunch with an old friend. Yeah, they dated in college, they were actually voted most likely to get married in a contest held by Brandon's fraternity, but that was a long time ago. That night, Brandon went down to look through the box in the basement some more, looking at the old notes, the things he kept from his college years, the little doodles on the restaurant napkins, and a reminder note of Jordan's favorite cologne to wear. Thursday was approaching; he knew he had the day off but was a little worried that Darcy was going to give him a whole bunch of stuff to do. On Wednesday, he told Darcy that he needed to help a friend build a shed. Even with that excuse, she still made a list of three things, including canceling an internet free trial subscription, going to the video game store to purchase something for Robbie's birthday, and picking up a couple of pizzas for dinner. Not as long as his lists usually are, but still time-consuming considering he also had to meet Jordan in the afternoon. He showed up a little early at Alonso's, picked a table for two, one of the best booths in the restaurant. He waited with excitement, wearing one of the few suits his kids didn't stain, yet. He scrounged the bottom of a bottle of cologne with a few drops of the brand that she liked when they were in college. Jordan is running about ten minutes late, all of a sudden, Darcy and her mother walked into the restaurant. What the odds, Brandon first tries to bury his face in the menu, they don't see him; luckily, they're not sitting in any direct line of sight. Brandon got a text from Jordan, "My office just called, they said I had to go back. I can't make it to lunch, raincheck?" "Ah, too bad, definitely," Brandon texted back, secretly relieved, as he was sure he would be caught if Jordan had shown up. With his secret rendezvous now in abort mode, Brandon's next goal was to get out of this restaurant without his wife seeing him. Brandon sneaks over to a group of waiters, pointing at the table that they're sitting at, he says, "I need a couple of waiters to go over there and sing to those two women, happy birthday, there's a 20 in it for each of you," A few of them make their way over to the table. "We've heard that there's a birthday over here! Happy birthday to you..." that's Brandon's cue, as his wife turns to beat red, Brandon can sneak out in the commotion. Crisis averted. A few days have gone by; the weekend is here, Brandon spends much of the time in the basement looking through the box. He comes across a little stuffed toy dog that Jordan got him when they were a couple; it reminds him that Jordan loves dogs. She used to drag him to the kennel and get upset about the dogs who needed homes. Maybe I should include something that involves her passion for dogs, got it, a picnic outside the dog park. "We'll have a picnic while the dogs play in the park," he says in his mind as he's texting Jordan the suggestion. "Hey, I'm sorry we weren't able to catch up the other day, how about a picnic outside the dog park on Saturday?" "Oh, I can't do Saturday, how about Sunday afternoon?" She writes back. "Perfect, I know Rufus has been looking to get out of the house." Brandon writes. Jordan sent a picture of her dog, "I know, Matilda, too, what a great idea I'll see you then," Jordan wrote. As the weekend arrives, Brendan realizes that he's talked himself into a corner here, how is he going to get Rufus out of the house without Darcy realizing it? Out of the blue on Sunday afternoon, Brandon declares that he's going to bring Rufus to the dog park; unfortunately, he thought he'd just said it in Darcy's earshot, but his daughter, Brianna, heard him as well. "Yeah, I want to go to the dog park!" said Brianna. Brandon, trapped again, has to think fast his feet. "Not this time, sweetheart, I want to test it out first and make sure there are no mean dogs," Brandon says. Darcy gives him a curious look, "Just take her to the dog park," Darcy says. Brandon agrees, and he, Brianna, and Rufus pile into the station wagon and ride off to the dog park. Brandon is sweating the entire trip, as he's about to turn into the park, he panics and just drives straight. "Where are you going, isn't that a dog park?" Brianna asks. "I don't like that dog park, too many fleas, I know a better one," Brandon says. He can't believe he's going to cancel on Jordan, "I'm sorry to do this, but Rufus just twisted his ankle getting into the car, I guess I've got to take him to the vet." "Oh no, is he all right?" Jordan asks. "He should be, but better safe than sorry, I'll text you next week, we've got to do something soon!" Brandon said. "Absolutely!" writes Jordan. That afternoon, Brandon drove 45 minutes to the closest dog park so that Brianna and Rufus could run around for ten minutes before Brianna stepped into poop, and Rufus got into a fight with another dog. Brandon returns to his life of honey-do lists and girl scout cookies and doesn't hear anything from Jordan. He starts to become fascinated with the box in the basement, going down there every time he has a spare moment. He spends time searching through old letters and other memorabilia from when he was in college. He also starts to go through old text message conversations on that old phone; he sees a message from Jordan that reads, "What a weekend skiing in the mountains, you really are something special; I love you more than you know." A warm feeling of nostalgia comes to him again. He decides to text Jordan, "Sorry, we couldn't get together last weekend. It's a long shot, but how about some skiing up in the mountains this weekend, just like old times?" "I think I could swing that," Jordan writes. "Okay, I'll meet you up at the Green Hill Hotel, where we used to stay back in the day," says Brandon. "Looking forward to it," Jordan wrote. An hour and a half away, in the middle of the mountains, with his college ex-girlfriend, something was going to happen this weekend. The only thing left was that he had to come up with a justification to be gone for the weekend. Brandon noticed that the New York Knicks were playing on Saturday night and told Darcy that he and some of his buddies were going into the city to watch the game and spend the night. Despite some objections to the boy's night, Darcy finally let him go. The weekend was here, Brandon drove an hour and a half to the Green Mountain Hotel. He's there early and has lunch at the hotel bar. As he leaves the bar near the main lobby, he sees Jordan with her husband and two children. Brandon feels stupid; he ducked behind some columns so that she didn't see him. Once Jordan and her family got on the elevator, and the doors closed, he left the hotel and wrote another apology text. "Once again, I'm sorry, my wife needed help with the kids this weekend, so I can't go skiing. I hope you have a nice time with your family." "I completely get it, the life of a parent, all plans are tentative,” Jordan texted back. It's was a long drive back home for Brandon. When he came home late Saturday night, his wife, Darcy, greeted him. "What's wrong? I thought you were going to watch the game with the guys?" Darcy asked. "I wasn't feeling it; I think I need to make more of an effort here, to be a better father, a better husband," Brandon says. "Well, I'm happy you're home, the kids have missed you today, we love you," says Darcy as Brandon smiles. Brandon eventually made his way downstairs that night, took Jordan's number out of his phone, and collected all the material he'd been looking at over the last few weeks, along with that old cell phone. He packed it all into that old box he found in the basement; he labeled it, "college years," sealed it up, and placed it back on the shelf, out of sight, out of mind. Often the past is intended to stay in the past.