Page 32 of What Comes After

Maybe if we’d been that, maybe if there was something more between us, I might have seriously considered it.

I couldn’t.

“I can’t,” I rasped.

Disappointed, he nodded his understanding.

“When do you leave?” I asked.

“Right after Thanksgiving.”

“Thanksgiving?”

“Yeah.”

That was barely any time at all.

Inside, my heart was breaking, but I knew Theo had wanted this his whole life. I smiled at him and said, “We’ve got to pack a lot of fun into a very short time.”

I could see a million thoughts running through his mind, but Theo didn’t share whatever they were. Instead, he declared, “Well, then we better get your house packed up, so we’ve got time for some fun.”

“Did you have dinner yet?” I asked.

He shook his head.

“Let’s eat first. Then we’ll pack.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.”

With that, I ignored all the devastating emotions moving through me and did my best to focus on the moment. Theo was here right now, and I wanted to soak up all the time I had left with him.

SEVEN

Theo

There was nothing quite like the Thanksgiving holiday to put things into perspective.

I woke up this morning, like many over the last couple of weeks, contemplating the days and weeks ahead of me.

I couldn’t remember a time in my life when I was at such odds about anything. So much was happening, and it left me feeling a range of conflicting emotions.

Happiness, gratitude, and excitement on the one hand, and sadness, confusion, and worry on the other.

I’d gotten that call about my audition, how well it had gone, and the offer for the role in my first major motion picture. I was over the moon about it. Having the opportunity to not only act in such a large-scale production but for it to be one of the leading roles was beyond my wildest expectations. It had been everything I’d ever wanted.

So, there was no way I couldn’t feel happy, grateful, or excited about the opportunity to live out my dream.

But the euphoria I’d been feeling started to fade when I visited Devyn and had to tell her the truth.

Unsurprisingly, she was beyond supportive and super proud of me. I expected nothing less from her. If the roles had been reversed, I would have been the same exact way for her.

The negative emotions I’d been experiencing for days now had been the result of coming to terms with a number of things.

First and foremost, while I knew I was going to be moving out west permanently and hadn’t initially given it a second thought, it wasn’t until I saw Devyn that reality set in. It was one thing to feel like my dreams were coming true, and it was something else entirely to feel like I was leaving my whole world behind in the process.

I didn’t know how I was ever going to survive being away from her. Devyn had been such an important person in my life. She’d been so loving and supportive from the very beginning, and over the years, she’d become someone I knew I couldn’t ever live without.

Somewhere along the line, I’d fallen in love with her. By the time I realized exactly what it was, she’d suffered the most devastating loss, and it never felt like it was the right time to tell her after that.

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