In the stillness of a Saturday afternoon, I ponder
What became of the stranger briefly shown
Reality stopped upon our eyes meeting
And I’ve never felt more known
A single moment fleeting
Breath held, sudden silence
And for a moment I considered
My future – exposed in brief brilliance
A rush of movement
There I stood, wind blown
The train swept him away as suddenly as he came
And I’ve never felt more alone
Here I stand, many years later
Remembering those seconds of uncertainty
I look up again into eyes I know so well
There he stands – a stranger no more, still holding my hand
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Your story reminds me of an excerpt from the script of “Indecent Proposal,” a salacious screenplay adapted from a novel by the same name, written by Jack Englehard. The protagonist in the fictional story is John Gage, a bachelor billionaire and socialite who loves to gamble and he meets a newly married couple on their honeymoon in Las Vegas. He invites them to a game of pool in his penthouse suite and while playing with the husband, he offers the couple one million dollars to sleep with the new bride, for one night. The character Diana Murphy is portrayed by Demi Moore, who is a real estate agent whose career is threatened during a recession, and her husband, an inspiring architect, lost his job and is afraid of foreclosure of their newly purchased home.
The couple becomes offended by the proposal and refuses, insisting they can’t be bought regardless of the money, but while on their honeymoon, they lose their life savings while playing roulette. They hoped to renovate their dream home in Santa Monica if they doubled their savings. During a sleepless night, deep in depression for losing all their money, they accept the proposal the next morning with John Gage. A formal agreement is drafted in writing, as they await the night of romance on Gage’s yacht.
After the one-night stand, Gage pursues Diana and invites her to his mansion, where he tells her a story of his life. In his story, he tells her of memory at the train station many years ago, where he was seated across from the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Being shy at that time of his life, he would glance at her and when she looked back, he would look away and vice-versa.
When he disembarked, she looked directly at him through the window and smiled with the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. Smitten by the encounter, he returned each day, hoping to see her again but never succeeded. He said, not one day went by that he didn’t think of losing the opportunity to meet her again. He tells Diana, he doesn’t want that to happen again with her. He wants to settle down with and marry her. Impressed by his story, she slowly starts to fall for the bachelor billionaire and agrees to divorce her husband and marry Gage.
The storyline ends when she realizes the colossal mistake she made with Gage and the love she lost with her husband and decides to revoke the divorce agreement and return to him while asking for forgiveness, for the sinful encounter with Gage. They meet unexpectedly in a gazebo by the sea, where they spent time together while dating, and return home together. The million dollars paid to the couple was deemed sinister and was donated by Diana’s husband to charity while at a fundraising event with Gage.