My ATF that got away was in San Diego, at the Showboat on Broadway back in 78. We were getting along great, and we had actually started talking about her going with me when I left SD. I had a West-Pac coming up, and we knew I would be home in 8 months. She also knew I was thinking about re-enlisting.
We wrote steadily while I was gone until 2 months before we were due to return home. I had re-enlisted, and she just stopped writing.
When we got home, I called her. As soon as she knew it was me, she would hang up. So, I talked to her ex-Mother-in-Law, who was a friend of mine. She told me that S's dad had retired from the Navy, and had bugged out for Australia, leaving his wife and daughter high and dry. So, she "naturally" assumed I would do the same.
I caught up with her at work, and the last thing she said to me was "I don't owe you anything!" Other than an answer, no she didn't. Anyway, she walked away, and I never saw her again.
Fast-forward 38 years, and she tracked me down.
She told me that she had realized about a year later that she had made a huge mistake by not going with me--about 6 months after she got married. She started looking for me about 5 years ago to tell me that she wished we had stayed together. I pointed out that she walked away, not me.
She said that she loved me, and regretted not having someone that loved her the way I had back in the past. I told her I had always wondered how we would have worked out. And that there was no chance of finding out now. We are both very married, and have been for nearly 40 years. Just not to each other.
So, sometimes they come around to your way of thinking. Sometimes though, it's just too damn late.