Chapter 50
Luke
When I was little, I remember going to the zoo, my mom and I.
I liked lions the most, but they mostly stayed hidden behind the bushes every time we were there.
My mom never had the patience to wait around for them to move, so she’d nudge me along to see some other animals. I’d always feel disappointed.
One time, though, as we were walking away, I glanced back and saw the lions finally wandering around the aviary.
I couldn’t resist. I snuck away from my mom to get a closer look.
Seeing them up close was thrilling, but when I turned to find her again, she was gone.
I was maybe six. It was the most terrified I’d ever felt, not just because I couldn’t find her, but because I knew it was my fault.
That’s how I felt right now. The place where Hazel had slept was still warm and soft, her scent on the pillowcase. I had the opportunity to have everything I had ever wanted, and I let it slip through my fingertips. And it was my own damn fault.
I scared her.
I scared her away.
My hand drifted up to my jaw, fingers brushing the tense line of bone like that might somehow undo what had just happened.
I stared at the empty space next to me and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to erase the image of her walking out that door.
Quietly, like always. Hazel had this way of leaving that made it feel like she’d never been there at all.
No creaking floorboards. No slammed doors.
Just a loud absence. It was ironic, really.
I used to be the one slipping away. I’d perfected the art of the early morning exit.
I was ready to get up, run barefoot down the street if that’s what it took.
Because somewhere along the way, without realizing it, I’d built my entire future with her in it, and I couldn’t imagine it without her now.
Not anymore. Traces of her could be found in every part of my life.
Even my friends loved her more than me. There was no denying that.
And that’s when I saw it—a small, white piece of paper on the nightstand. Folded once, nothing fancy.
Give me some time. Please.
Just five words, but it was the last one that wrecked me. It was that please that made me stay. That made me love her even more.
She asked me to trust her. To trust that she would find her way back to me.
To wait for her. Funny!
I would have waited for her anyway.