The End
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But no matter how many times he looked through it, no matter how many times he looked at other letters to compare the handwriting, it was always the same. It was her. The woman he loved. That he had been convinced had loved him in return. They'd sworn forever, but apparently forever was over with. With just a few simple words, she had broken his heart. I've met someone else. Those words were all it took to ruin his life forever.
"Why?" he whispered, staring at a picture of the two of them together. "Why did you do it? Why did you leave me like that?"
But the picture gave no answer. All that he was going to get was the letter, it seemed. The letter telling him they were through. He stared at it another time, reading the words over and over. Everything was going fine in her new home. Then the bombshell dropped: and blew him apart.
Slowly he threw himself back down into the chair, removing the horrible, horrible thing from his sight. He didn't want to see it, but he knew he couldn't get rid of it. Not yet, anyway.
His friends had heard about it, of course. Small wonder, he'd been with them when he got it! They had wanted to take him somewhere, he hadn't heard where yet, to help him get over it. Fat chance, he wasn't going anywhere, he had responsibilities here, ones he couldn't get away from! How could they even think about taking him away from where she and he had been so happy together?
But never happy again. Not like they had been. Not like they should be! Not like they ever would be again. He was alone...alone forever now.
He would never forget the day they had met. Their eyes had touched across the room, and his heart had immediately done flip flops. He'd never believed in love at first sight until then. It was as if everything he'd lived through until then didn't matter. What mattered was finding out the name of that beauty across the room.
Not that long after....well, if you could call a few months not long after...they'd finally had their first date, and he hadn't looked back since. All the problems, all the troubles they'd had, none of it had mattered, since they were together. They'd faced them all, no matter what, and it had been glorious.
Then she'd left. A great opportunity, she said. A chance to learn from the best. To fulfill a childhood fantasy. Nothing would change between them. They'd be forever together.
Only six months had passed before the letter had come. Six months when he'd been very virtuously loyal to her. He'd been asked out by girls, including some who knew that he was attached, and had turned them each down gently. He was for his lady, his love, only.
Now he didn't even have that excuse. He was 'free'.
Freedom wasn't worth it. If this was freedom, then he would gladly trade it all back for one more moment with her, for one last time to ask the question of 'why'. Why had she done it? Why had she waited until she was gone to do this? Had he done something wrong? What had he failed at? He hadn't thought she would want to take their relationship to the physical, she'd never said anything about it, but maybe that was it.
A thousand scenarios popped up in his mind. Each of them was less plausible than the last. What it baldly came down to was the fact that she didn't love him anymore.
As the words ricocheted around his brain, they finally settled down to one simple set of sounds: call her. He had no idea why he hadn't thought of this before. He practically dived at the phone, his hands scrabbling at the numbers. Slowly he calmed himself, calling on his martial arts training to focus his energies and keep himself in a state of mind where he would not sound like a totally idiotic baboon-brain.
"Hello?" It was her voice. He would have recognized it if a thousand years had passed since the last time they spoke. "Who is this, please?"
"It's me."
"Oh." She didn't exactly seem all that thrilled, nor angry, to hear from him. She just sounded like herself. "What do you want?"
"I was wondering about this letter you sent me." He tried to maintain a clipped, cool distance in his voice, not letting all the pain show through. He'd find out one way or the other what was going on.
She didn't appear to care, though. "What about it? I thought it was very straightforward. I don't love you anymore. I'm not even all that sure that I really did. I started to feel things differently when I left. I realized there was a lot more to the world than what home had to offer me, and I want that more. I want it more than anything. But I can't have it with you."
He was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless. She wasn't, however. "We had a good time together, but it's over now. I know you'll find someone else someday, and I honestly wish you well with them. But whoever she is, she isn't me."
"Oh." Well, that certainly sounded as if he had a functioning brain cell!! "Well...."
"You know, you don't have to mope around because of this." She was being so businesslike it hurt! "There's that blonde you could ask out."
"No." His voice was flat and unemotional. "I don't know about you, but I don't go from relationship to relationship as if I were a rubber ball. I loved you, and I still do right now. I can't turn my emotions off as if I were a water faucet. I'll get over you, I think, but right now, I don't even want to look at another woman. Thanks for clearing everything up for me. Good luck with your future. Good-bye."
He didn't even give her a chance to say farewell before he slammed the phone down nearly hard enough to break it in half. For several long moments he just stood there, staring down at it as if it were a snake that might turn and bite him. It's over. Now it felt more final. As if the wound in his heart would finally start to heal up.
For a moment, he thought about just going back to bed, of having the others do without him if they needed him. But he couldn't. He glanced at the clock. Almost time for his shift. With a sigh, Chad Lee grabbed his things and headed out the door. He was almost late for the show. He sighed briefly. Yes, he'd had a lot of fun and a lot of love with Honey, but maybe it wasn't meant to last. That didn't mean it didn't hurt.
What I need is something to distract me. Guess work will have to do. What else is there? As he headed for his job, he felt his heart lighten just a little. Since the moment he'd read the letter for the first time, he felt as if things were possibly looking up.
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