Me: You there, baby?
Me: Iris, are we still on for 8?
Me: ???
I stare at the unanswered texts. It’s not normal for Iris to justneverrespond.
The moment I step into my rented apartment, myheart is in my throat. Fearing something terrible has happened. But when I almost slip on a piece of envelope near the entrance, I freeze.
It’s addressed to me. My name glaring at me with the handwriting I’ve seen too many times in the notes I often copy from Iris.
What the fuck?
I hastily pick it up, tearing it open with more force than required.
A letter? Afuckingletter?
What the hell did I miss between having breakfast at her apartment and now? Merely ten hours later.
Her words stare back at me as I collapse on my couch. My eyes stinging immediately as I read the first lines.
She’s been pulling back for the past few weeks. But I’d never imagined—never dreamed—it would come to this.
Levi,
I debated whether this letter was necessary. Whether it would be kinder to just leave quietly and let you piece it together in your own time. But I figured I owed you the truth, even if it’s not the version you were hoping for.
I won’t be meeting you at the Conservatory tonight. Or ever again.
I’ve accepted an offer from another firm in Los Angeles. It’s full-time, competitive, and everything I’ve worked toward since I knew what the word “consulting” even meant. It starts in two weeks. And I’m leaving today. I might already be gone when you read this.
It wouldn’t make sense to follow you toVancouver. The firm I’d have joined doesn’t fit me. And I’m not ready to slow down or bend myself to match someone else’s path. I’m twenty-three, and I want to choose myself without apologizing for it. But I am sorry for breaking us while I did that.
This decision wasn’t easy, but it’s what’s right for me.
I don’t want to be the girl who gave it all up for a boy only to resent you in the future. I want more than to just become a cliché. We both deserve more than that.
I’m sorry, Levi. I’m sorry because there was a version of this story where we made it work. But this isn’t that version.
I hope you remember the Conservatory the same way I will. The sound of that old piano in the corner. The orchids you hated but still brought me.
The rooftop we weren’t supposed to climb but did anyway.
It was beautiful.
But it was also enough.
Goodbye, Levi.
- Iris
My ears ring at the last sentence.
Goodbye.
That’s it? That’sfucking it?After a year and a half of everything—of perfect, messy, beautifulus—this is how she ends it?
Not a call. Not a word, but on paper. Just ink that smells like distance.
