I Wrote a Love Letter to a Stranger

As a freelance writer, I've taken some pretty random gigs. I once wrote character and plot analysis for Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. I've reviewed a make-your-own comic book with no words in it. I use a freelance site and am constantly checking it to see if there's anything that interests me. Recently, one job posting broke my heart. Its title was "Love letter to my soulmate." The description said this person's fiance had left them and they were determined to win him back. They wanted someone to write a love letter expressing how they felt.

Once I'd secured the job, we had a half-hour phone conversation while I sat in a coffee shop and interviewed this woman about her relationship. I asked about their first date, things he did for her that she appreciated, what changes she could commit to making, their pet names for each other. Over the course of a few days, I crafted a four-page letter making her case. It felt a little strange writing a love letter to a person I'd never met, from a person I'd never met. I felt kind of intrusive, knowing such intimate details about their relationship and acting as if I were a part of it. I even stole a line from my husband's vows that has stuck with me: "You are my joy."

My husband the skeptic thinks there's no way this letter is going to work. "A relationship based on a letter is doomed," he says. "Does she ever plan to tell him she didn't even write it?"

"But this is the part of the rom-com when they split up and then there's a slow montage of their relationship and then they get back together with a big romantic gesture! Like a well-written love letter!" I argue.

"Because those movies are so realistic," he says.

I don't know what's going to happen with these two. I'd like to believe that I'm playing a small role in their happiness. My husband might be right. But I'm rooting for them.