“I’m leaving.”
“Leaving what?” I asked, trying to put some distance between us. Something that wasn’t easy in the back seat of a battered old Camaro.
“I’ve enlisted. I leave in three days.”
He wouldn’t look at me. He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
In that moment, I did something I never thought I would. Never thought I could. I hated him.
I hated him for leaving. I hated him for making this decision without me. I hated him for breaking my heart.
I shoved open the door and scrambled out.
Ignoring the rocks and sticks poking into my feet, I ran down to the bank of the lake and screamed.
I screamed long and I screamed hard.
I don’t remember the tears starting, but when Nick reached for me, I slapped him away. I didn’t want him to touch me. I didn’t want him near me. He was leaving me, and I had no say.
“Holly, I don’t want to leave you, but this is my only way out. I love you, you know I do, but I have to go and makesomething of myself. I have nothing to give you, not like this …”
“I don’t need anything else, Nick! I just need you,” I cried, my legs wobbling beneath me.
It’d taken less than ten minutes to upend my life in a way I’d never recover from.
Nick ignored my cries and my attempts to push him away. Instead, he hugged me to his chest. He stood there, letting me cry on his shoulder as birds circled overhead.
“What am I supposed to do without you?” I choked out, realizing the life I’d dreamed for us was now not worth the paper I’d written it on.
“Wait for me,” he replied firmly.
I stared at him. He was the boy I’d fallen in love with who grew into the man who was breaking my heart. I wanted to hate him. I wanted to run from him and never look back, but I couldn’t. Nicholas was a good man. A great one.
“Wait for you?”
“Wait for me, Holly. I want to come home to you. I want to know you’re at home waiting for me. Praying for me. Loving me.”
I looked up at the man who owned me and into his watery eyes. That's all it took for me to know no matter how long it took, I’d wait. I’d wait for Nick forever.
I didn’t trust my words. Instead, I just nodded as Nick bent down and kissed me. It was so soft, so gentle, so filled with love that I had no choice.
That night we sat by the lake talking.
He held me as we tried to figure out how to make this work.
We were so young.
The world was against us.
All we could do was believe our love was strong enough.
Four years later, I was a qualified teacherworking in a small school. I loved my class and the friends I’d made. I didn’t live with my father anymore. When wife number two moved in, I packed my bags and moved out. Instead, I lived in an apartment over the garage of a lovely old lady, Elody. Elody’s husband had passed, and she had trouble with some basic errands. So in exchange for my room, I helped her with her groceries and drove her to the seniors center to play bingo every Wednesday night.
I’d just dropped Elody off and had come home to reheat a frozen dinner when there was a knock at my door. No one ever knocked on my door. Never.
I picked up my phone, ready to dial 911.
When I peered through the peephole, my heart stopped.
