29. Mason
Chapter 29
Mason
June 2023
I am leaving to head back home today. My alarm went off at 3:00 this morning. I didn’t get much sleep last night. I laid down, heavy eyes and all, but tossed and turned until a little after midnight. Hopefully, I will be able to get some sleep on the plane. Right now I need to focus on making sure I gather all of my things.
I grab all my clothing, pack my suitcase, lay out the outfit that I plan to wear on the plane, and jump in the shower. My flight leaves at 6:30 and I need to be at the airport by 4:30, at the latest. Callie is driving me there and I’m not ready for that goodbye.
I get out of the shower just in time to hear a knock at the door. I grab a towel to wrap around my waist and head to open the door.
Cal’s eyes go wide when she sees me standing there with only a towel wrapped around my waist.
“Come on in, I’ll just be a minute.”
“Take your time, I’m a little early,” she says as she walks towards the living room area of my hotel suite. I hurry to get myself dressed and finish putting my bags together. It’s now 3:45 and we’ve got to be leaving in about 15 minutes.
On the way to the airport, I look over at Callie and notice she’s got tears falling down her cheek.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her, already knowing why she’s crying.
“I just didn’t think it would be this hard, that’s all,” she replies.
I don’t think either of us thought my going back home would be this hard since we’re not together. I am leaving with us being friends, but that’s more than I expected would happen when I first saw the look she gave me at Val’s.
“I know, I didn’t either,” I say as we are pulling into the airport.
Her tears are falling more rapidly now. I pull up to the curb and we both get out of the car. I walk to the trunk to grab my suitcase and carry-on bag. Callie meets me on the sidewalk in front of the entrance. I immediately pull her into a hug and kiss the top of her head. God, I hate this. I don’t want to leave with her feeling like this, but I’ve got to get back to work. This is way harder than I thought it would be. This isn’t the same as last time. I think to myself. Her crying as I’m leaving now is not the same emotion she felt when I left her in high school.
She pulls back, tears still falling, and says “I’m already counting down the days until you’re picking me up from the airport.” I laugh and wipe the tears off her cheeks.
“Callie, I already can’t wait to pick you up from the airport.” She pulls me back into a hug and squeezes me tight.
I hate to pull away but I have no choice. It’s time to head to my gate. I tell her goodbye, for the hundredth time, and squeeze her one more time. I promise to call her as soon as I land and turn to walk into the airport. I hear her quietly saying goodbye through her tears. I must keep going. I must get back to work. I can’t stay here any longer. I say to myself to keep from turning around and running back to her.
I make it to my gate and board my plane. I’ve got a two-hour flight, and it gives me time to think about a lot. From leaving Callie all those years ago, to dating, and what’s happened this week. I can’t mess it up this time. I don’t want to mess it up this time. I don’t know that I am ready for a long-distance relationship, even though we haven’t considered what we have as a relationship, but I do know that I am willing to do whatever it takes to make this work. Callie deserves that much.
Leaving her outside her house all those years ago with tears streaming down her face was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Everyone kept telling me that we were too young to understand how hard a long-distance relationship would be. That we wouldn’t be able to survive four years apart from each other. That it would be easier to break up now than it would be later down the road. Knowing what I know now, none of that was true. I should not have listened to anyone or anything but my own heart. And Ma.
The first few months were the hardest. That’s when I met Holden, Jo Ellen’s brother. He was my dorm mate and we became best friends. We were both law majors, so we had classes together and we spent a lot of time studying together. I remember talking his ear off about Callie. I told him all about how we met, how much fun we had together, and of course how I broke her heart. He always told me that I needed to get out of the dorm room and live a little, which is why he always brought me to different parties all over campus.
Holden also introduced me to the first girl I dated after leaving Callie. We met at a party Holden dragged me out to during our sophomore year. She was a nice girl, and we had a lot of fun in the short time that we were together. She was a junior year education major, and our schedules didn’t allow much time to spend together, so it didn’t last long. Looking back I think I used that as an excuse because I just kept comparing her to Callie.
I’d love to have Callie meet Holden eventually, I think they’d get along great. She’s coming up to see me next month so we can do some planning to go to North Carolina then. Or at least bring up the idea of visiting to see how she feels about it. Holden’s wife and Callie are a lot alike, so I’m pretty sure they’d get along, too. I know I’m getting ahead of myself because we haven’t even discussed what this is yet. We both agreed that we’d like to go slow and just see where things go. The feelings that we shared for each other back in high school are still there, but do they go past that? That’s where we have to figure things out.
After leaving the airport I took the shuttle to the parking lot where I left my car when I flew south. I never thought I’d miss the NYC summer but after being in Georgia for a couple weeks I am glad to be in the cooler summer weather. I pull out of the parking lot and head towards my office. I planned our mid-year meeting before deciding to travel so I couldn’t reschedule. I’m exhausted but this shouldn’t take too long, I hope. I put my phone on the dash mount and at the next red light I FaceTime Callie.
“I made it back to New York,” I tell her when she answers.
“Are you calling me while driving?!” she asks.
“Yes, but I’m not holding my phone nor am I currently moving. I’m sitting at a red light.” I smile at her as the light turns green.
“I’m glad you made it back. You’re headed into the office now, right?”
“Yeah, I’ve got a staff meeting and then I am heading back to my place to crash. I didn’t get nearly enough sleep last night and catching up today will be better than waiting until tomorrow or Sunday to catch up.”
“Okay, be careful. I’ll call you later tonight. If you don’t answer, I’ll assume you’re sleeping.”
“Okay. I’ll try my best to be awake to answer it. Goodbye, Callie.”
“Goodbye Mason.”
I hang up the call and continue north a few blocks before turning into the parking lot. The first thing I do when I get in the office is make a cup of coffee. Hopefully, it will be enough caffeine to get me through this meeting and back to my bed. I head to my office and gather what I’ll need - my laptop, a notebook, and printouts of the last three months' worth of our cases. Heading toward the conference room I hear my phone ding. I lay all my things on the table and power on my laptop. While I wait for it to start up, I grab my phone. It’s a text from Holden.
Holden : Are you back from Georgia yet?
Me : Yep, just got back this morning. I’m about to head into a work meeting before going home to crash. What’s up?
Holden : I forgot you have your meeting today; I will holler at you later. Was going to ask about how things went with Callie since we last talked.
Me : Things went great. I will give you details when we talk later.
Holden : Okay. Have a good meeting.
I put my phone on silent and put it back in my pocket just as a few of my coworkers walk into the conference room. I greet them before signing on to my laptop and pulling up the reports that I need. Once everyone has shown up, we begin the meeting and plan for the next three months. I opened my firm a couple of years ago and earlier this year was approached about partnering up. I didn’t give them an answer right away because I wasn’t sure if that was the route I wanted to go within my career. I took some time to mill it over and decided to go for it. This is our first meeting since becoming partners and it’s been reassuring seeing just how dedicated he is to the image we are trying to work with going forward.
The meeting lasted a little over an hour and a half. I make my rounds speaking to everyone in the office and then take the rest of the day off. Before heading out I grab my laptop, phone, and keys. I make my way to my car and begin the drive home. I live about 20 minutes from my firm, but traffic isn’t too bad since most everyone is at work today. I don’t make it too far into my place before I land on the couch and crash.
I’m woken up by an incoming phone call – it’s Holden but I don’t make it in time before he hangs up. I check the time. It’s 3:15. I got a few hours of sleep and I feel refreshed enough. I grab my phone and text Holden.
Me : Hey, missed your call. Just woke up. Let me finish waking up and I’ll call you back.
Holden : I figured you might still be sleeping. No rush, call when you get the chance. I’ll be home the rest of the evening.
Me : Will do.
About an hour later I called Holden back and filled him in on my time in Georgia. From our first meeting to saying goodbye. He couldn’t believe that his sister worked with my high school sweetheart. He agrees that it’s not a coincidence, it’s fate. I mentioned to him that I’d like Callie to meet them eventually and he reminded me that in September his in-laws will be having a huge fall festival at their family farm and that we are more than welcome to come to that. I agree to mention it to Callie and see if that’ll work with her schedule. We talk on the phone for damn near an hour before saying goodbye.
Later that night Callie FaceTimes me again and as promised, I tell her about Holden’s offer to visit his in-law's farm for their fall festival. She says she’d love to and will talk to Jo Ellen about it but she’s sure she won’t mind if she gets someone to cover her patients for her while she’s gone. She explains that it shouldn't be hard because they’ve got a good team of people who have each other's back, and she will let me know as soon as possible if she can get that time off work.
We spent a good while talking - reminiscing on memories from high school. The good and the bad, laughing at each other's jokes. It’s so easy to talk to her even though it’s been fifteen years since we broke up. It almost feels too good to be true, but I hope that’s not the case. Talking to her and being around her have always been easy. As kids, we were able to get through the hard times easily, and I'm sure as adults we will, too, but first, we have to get through this long distance to make sure we aren't just living on those old feelings. It's easy to fall into those same steps that you walked before when feelings and emotions never left your being in the first place.