Wes, take the example of the OM in my sitch. A long time "friend" of my ex, had a thing with her some 20 years ago. They kept in touch over a long distance over they years, sometimes meeting up when he was in town. She meets me, falls in love and marries me. Still keeps in touch about once a year with the OM. Well, long story short, she's now living with him, as he was there when she started confiding her marital woes to him and he picked it up from there.
So, the bottom line is, he didn't wait around for her for 20 years but moved ahead with his own life, but did keep in touch and made all positives out of their contacts and gave her support and validation when she opened up to him.
