Raci shook her head, and my heart broke into tiny pieces. “It won’t work. Long distance never does.”
I let out a long sigh and stood back up. The only way to let her go is to be cold, to put up a wall, to block her out.
Yet I couldn’t bring myself to do it. “Alright. I don’t think we should drag this out any longer. How about I walk you about?”
Raci blinked a few times and nodded. My heart lurched. We had planned to have dinner together, but I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t eat and stare at her beautiful face for another second knowing she was leaving. “Let me just change into my dress and I’ll leave your clothes.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure the ride back to the city would be more comfortable in sweats.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded. “I’m sure. Keep them. Something to remember me by.”
A few minutes later, I walked her outside, her dress over her arm, her heels in my hand, as she unlocked her car. She took the heels from me and put them in the front seat with her purse and dress. I stood by the driver’s door watching her every move, my heart aching.
I felt like I was going to be sick, the pain of my heart breaking into two unbearable.
How would I let her go? How?
Raci turned to face me, and it felt as if my world ended.Please…stay…for me.
The words sat on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t utter a single one. Instead, I leaned forward and kissed her, long and hard, slow and gentle, pouring everything I felt for her into thatkiss and hoping she’d always remember me and our time spent together. I gripped her waist and kissed her again and again, only breaking apart to hold her head against my chest and bury my face in her hair, committing the scent to memory as I masked my tears.
Raci’s body shuddered and I looked down to find her crying against my chest. I held her close, waited until her tears subsided, and kissed her again and again.
“Thank you, Raci. Drive safe. And don’t forget about me.” I said with one last kiss.
“I could never forget about you, Ayden. Never ever.” She stood on her tip toes and kissed me, long and slow, her tears mixing in.
And then she climbed in her car and backed out of the driveway, with only a single wave goodbye.
“I love you,” I called.
But she was already dust in the wind.
I headed back inside,my head hung low, hoping my dog would cheer me up. But something told me I would not be cheering up anytime soon. As I reached my front door, Bluey jumped up and banged against the glass. “Hey, Bluey, get down. That’s not a nice boy.” I hope he wouldn’t start acting out now that Raci was gone. She wasn’t here long enough to have that type of impact, right?
Opening the door, Bluey ran outside at full force, immediately running towards the road. He barked and barked, as if something or someone was there, but there wasn’t anything.
It was pretty quiet most of the time on the dead-end street.
“Bluey come here! Get out of the road!”
But he didn’t listen. He ran towards it, barking the whole way. “Bluey!”
And that’s when I saw it.
The parked car.
Herparked car.
Raci.
My heart raced.
Blood rushed through my ears.
She sat behind the driver’s seat, sobbing.
