Page 4 of What Comes After

Theo McCormick.

A man I’d loved all my life, but a man who was too good for me.

I slid my finger across the screen, opened the text conversation, and felt a pang of sadness move through me.

Theo

Tell me this view isn’t gorgeous.

While I didn’t know exactly where Theo was, it was apparent he was standing on a balcony somewhere, and he was looking at a spectacular view.

I’d become accustomed to these texts from Theo.

For as long as I could remember, he had sent them to me. Sometimes, especially in the beginning, I always responded quickly. I wanted to know all that he was experiencing, and I wanted to do my part to be happy for him. But as time went on, as I followed his career, I often found myself allowing time to pass between receiving his texts and sending a response.

He was who he was, and I was me.

We were at such vastly different places in our lives, and I always wondered why he’d continued to reach out to me. We no longer had anything in common, and I’d never fit into his life the way I had always wanted to when we were younger.

Moments.

So many moments had impacted our lives. Theo seemed to have gotten all the good ones. I loved that for him.

My life didn’t have so many of the good ones. I tried not to dwell on the bad and continued to trudge along, hoping that one day, I’d get a good moment, too.

Just one.

My life wasn’t awful, and I attempted to keep that at the forefront of my mind. No matter how bad things might have seemed for me, I knew there was someone else who always had it worse.

So, I had no problem waiting for my good moments. I knew one of them would eventually come. One good moment would change my whole life, just like all the bad ones leading up to it had impacted it the way they had.

My eyes lingered on the photo Theo sent for a long time. But when the lights in the theater started to dim so the previews could start, I slid my phone back into my purse and looked around. The room was still mostly empty, only a few seats occupied.

I didn’t want Roy to miss the movie, so I decided to go in search of him.

Making it to the front near the restrooms, I stopped a man who had just walked out of the men’s room.

“Excuse me, sir?” I called.

The man stopped and looked at me. “Yeah?”

I smiled and tipped my head from one side to the other. “Um, was there anyone else in the restroom?”

He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

My brows pulled together, and the man walked off. I moved toward the door, opened it, and called out, “Roy?”

No response.

“Roy?” I tried again.

Nothing.

Thinking he might have gone outside to get some fresh air, I walked toward the exit. And the moment I stepped outside, my eyes were pulled in the direction of where my car had been parked.

While I couldn’t make out what was happening, I could see Roy. He was standing there with a group of guys around him, and I immediately assumed they had to be some friends of his.

Guessing he must have gotten sidetracked and lost track of time, I didn’t hesitate to go toward him. But when I was a matter of a few feet away, I realized I was wrong.

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