16 pages of junk. . . or is it?

In How I Met My Husband by Alice Munro, I was sure that Chris Watters was going to marry Edie. The plot made it seem like it was going to happen. She talked with him many times. He complimented on her beauty: "Just because you looked so nice and pretty." (Munro, 135). They talk more, end up kissing, and then he leaves. He promises to mail her a letter and it never comes. She ends up marrying the mailman, a nice fellow, but not the man of her obsession. Her interaction with the mailman was described in about two paragraphs whereas the other pages describe her interactions with Chris. It seems that about sixteen pages of the story is a waste and the ending makes no sense; however, Edie's interaction with Chris is needed and the ending is inevitable. If Edie never met Chris and interacted with him, she never would have waited at the mailbox everyday and she would not have married the mailman.