“Have you ever seen The Notebook or Love Actually?” “I think you’ve had too much time on your hands this summer.” I burst out laughing at her words and shook my head. I counted to ten in my head before speaking again.“What sort of guy am I then?” I held my breath, waiting for her answer. “Then why didn’t you ask me to go with you?” The silence that descended on the room at my question was stifling. Like he had any right to be defensive when he was the one who had just ripped our whole life apart. “I didn’t say that,” he snapped defensively. I want more than running this fucking inn in this nowhere town.” “So that’s it? Seven years, and it’s over just like that?”
Wrapping my arms around my stomach, I held tight to keep myself from falling apart as I asked, “This is why you haven’t asked me to marry you, isn’t it? You’ve known you wanted out, and just let me sit here waiting and wishing for something that was never going to happen.” He was so engrained in every fiber of my existence that I didn’t have a clue who I was without him. He was the only man I’d ever loved, the only man I’d ever been with. We were going to get married and build something great. We’d dreamed and made plans for our future. We’d been together since senior year of high school. Up until the very moment when he told me he was leaving, Cory had been my entire world.
The pain those three words caused was almost unbearable. The coward couldn’t bring himself to look me in the eyes as he murmured, “I don’t know.” When did that stop being enough for you, Cory? When did I stop being enough?”Īnd why was I so damn easy to walk away from? “We planned this together buying the inn, getting married, and starting our life. “We were supposed to do this together,” I said, batting the moisture from my cheeks. He lowered his head, but not before I saw the shame spread across his features. “I never cared about what else was out there because I had you.” “No,” I whispered, that one word breaking as it pushed its way past the lump in my throat. I hadn’t thought it possible for words to cut through flesh like a white-hot blade, but it had to be, because I felt like I was bleeding out. Haven’t you ever wanted to see what else is out there?” We’ve lived in the same goddamn town all our lives. “Christ, Poppy,” he continued, oblivious to the pain he’d just caused. My eyes brimmed with tears as I jolted back on one foot like he’d just slapped me. “But I was wrong!” he shouted, throwing his hands out to his sides. “But what, Cory? Finish your damn sentence!” If the man I’d loved with everything I had was going to throw away what we’d been building for years, I wanted answers. I thought I could be happy with this, but. “You said this was what you wanted.”Ĭory stopped packing to reach up and rub at the back of his neck. “I-I don’t understand,” I stuttered, watching motionless from the doorway of our bedroom as Cory emptied another drawer, moving to the bed to stuff his things into the bulging duffle bag sitting on the middle of the mattress. I’d told myself I was never going to end up with a man like my father, a selfish jerk who’d so easily walked away from his family like they meant less than nothing, but there I was, once again, watching as a man I cherished above everything was preparing to leave me behind. The gulf-sized distance he put between us.īut still, I ignored all of it, fighting tooth and nail day after day in an attempt to get back what we’d once had. The nights out with his buddies that got later and later as more time passed.
I was still standing, still breathing, but the space where my heart had once been now sat completely empty. It felt like someone had just punched a huge, gaping hole right in the center of my chest.