Page 137 of Loving You

I do my best to do that, too, but it’s like everything is happening in slow motion. Is that an effect of a heart breaking? Because as cliché as it sounds, I’m pretty sure that’s what’s happening to me right now.

I’m just going through the motions because my brain doesn't want to accept that my summer with Quinn is over.

Oh, fuck.

It’s over.

I slowly sit on the red rolling chair Quinn took over every afternoon during the last few weeks. I close my eyes to focus, and the reality of my life hits me hard in a flash.

I don’t want to go back to the way life was.

I don’t want to get back into a routine without her.

I don’t want to wake up and not make her breakfast. Or not see her sitting in the recliner, sipping her coffee in the morning while she reads. Or not see her smile the moment she comes home to find me waiting for her.

I want all of that.

I want her there when I come home.

I want to be there for her when she comes home.

I want to …

My eyes spring open and I stand.

Her flight doesn’t leave for a couple of hours.

“Henry, lock up and call it a day,” I say as I head for the shop door.

“Lock up everything?”

“Yes, I’ll pay you for the day and for however long I’m gone.”

“All right. Is everything okay?”

“Everything is great,” I tell him then knock on the doorframe before I rush through it.

I can’t let her go.

She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me and I cannot lose her.

I won’t.

I meant it when I said loving her was easy.

I’ll fight every single day if I have to make sure that’s the way we stay.

Whether it’s traveling with her or her here with me.

I don’t care how we make it work as long as we do.

“Why the hurry?” my dad yells from the back patio of the apartment as I jog across the grass to my house, Shadow right behind me.

I turn, running backward, and yell, “I have a flight to catch.”

I barely catch his smile as I resume my route.

I’ve got a one-track mind right now.

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