It had been three months since the overseas lines had carried her message between sobs and his quiet, secret room in his Arab parents’ house on the other side of the world.
“I just don’t think this is going to work. I love you, but…I can’t. Your parents don’t know about me, mine are terrified I will move there….I’m sorry. I think we really need to do it this time and just call it over.”
“OK,” he whispered through tears I’d never heard from a man before. “I suppose you’re right.”
And like that, my heart shattered. Why is doing the right thing sometimes just so goddamned painful? You’d think our hearts would rejoice that we’ve saved our lives, moved on, gone forward, but the little buggers want to hang on more than anything.
So when the day of her graduation finally arrived – the day they had planned to meet again, when he would return and see her graduate, she fought back the tears, knowing he would not come and that it was for the best, though for the past year she had anticipated nothing else.
The phone rang that morning she would never forget.
“Hi,” he said. “It’s me.”
Silence.
“Where are you?”
“Around the corner. I just couldn’t stay away….”
And like that, pain was reversed into joy. Right out of a movie they ran into each other’s arms and it was quite possible they would never be separated again. Never, ever, ever. Never mind her mother’s tears. Never mind “how will we.”
But the phone rang again.
And just like that, four days later he was taking her to the airport, openly weeping as she left him at the gate to return to the life she had known before all this.
“How could you just walk away?” he wept.
How could I not.
Jasmin Webb
“I just don’t think this is going to work. I love you, but…I can’t. Your parents don’t know about me, mine are terrified I will move there….I’m sorry. I think we really need to do it this time and just call it over.”
“OK,” he whispered through tears I’d never heard from a man before. “I suppose you’re right.”
And like that, my heart shattered. Why is doing the right thing sometimes just so goddamned painful? You’d think our hearts would rejoice that we’ve saved our lives, moved on, gone forward, but the little buggers want to hang on more than anything.
So when the day of her graduation finally arrived – the day they had planned to meet again, when he would return and see her graduate, she fought back the tears, knowing he would not come and that it was for the best, though for the past year she had anticipated nothing else.
The phone rang that morning she would never forget.
“Hi,” he said. “It’s me.”
Silence.
“Where are you?”
“Around the corner. I just couldn’t stay away….”
And like that, pain was reversed into joy. Right out of a movie they ran into each other’s arms and it was quite possible they would never be separated again. Never, ever, ever. Never mind her mother’s tears. Never mind “how will we.”
But the phone rang again.
And just like that, four days later he was taking her to the airport, openly weeping as she left him at the gate to return to the life she had known before all this.
“How could you just walk away?” he wept.
How could I not.
Jasmin Webb
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