“Hey,” he said, continuing to walk through the terminal on autopilot. “Hey, don’t cry. What happened? What couldn’t you do?”
She took a deep breath and fixed her eyes on his, her head tilting slightly to the side.
“You’re not feeling it either, are you, Erik?” she asked after a moment. “Be honest.”
“Feeling what?” he asked, a weight settling on his chest.
“Whatever it is we’re supposed to feel right now,” she said softly. “What a couple feels the week before their wedding.”
He sucked in a breath and nodded slowly as he lowered himself into a seat by a random gate.
“I have so much respect for you,” she said. “You’re a good man, and one of the best friends I’ve ever had.”
He nodded, unable to speak.
“But I just… I don’t feel that tingle,” she said sadly.
He wasn’t sure exactly what she meant bythat tingle, but he got the gist of it. His heart wasn’t pounding at the sound of her voice either. They really were missing that spark. And he wasn’t the only one that thought so.
“I’m so sorry, Erik,” she said. “I know this must hurt. I should have said something sooner, but we just make so much sense together. I kept thinking I was being silly. But then I just couldn’t get on the plane…”
“It’s fine,” he managed. “I’m glad you told me.”
There was relief in her eyes, and he felt terrible as he thought about her being afraid to tell him what he already knew himself.
They had friendship and mutual respect, but this wasn’t a romance, and it never had been. That wasevidenced by the fact that even in this moment, he was more distraught about how to tell the vets back at the Center than he was about being dumped.
“Me too,” she said. “And I want to reimburse you for all the wedding stuff. I know you spent a fortune on it. And I’m so sorry about disappointing everyone…”
“Don’t even think about it,” he told her.
“They offered me a promotion at work,” she told him. “Now that I’m not leaving, I’ll take it and then I can afford to reimburse you.”
“I’m happy for you,” he said, finding that he meant it. “And listen, I’ll throw a big New Year’s party for the guys anyway. The catering won’t go to waste, so there’s no need for you to worry about it, Goldilocks. Besides, you know I’m not hurting for money.”
She smiled at him, gratitude in her big blue eyes as she swiped golden curls from her tear-stained face.
“Now listen,” Erik told her. “We’ll always be friends. So don’t be shy if you ever need anything, or you just want to keep me posted on your life.”
“I might need a little time on that,” she said, nodding. “But yeah, same, Erik. Take care of yourself.”
“You too,” he said.
And then she was gone, and he was staring at his own reflection in the darkened surface of the phone.
Erik wasn’t sure how long he stayed like that, trying to make sense of what he was supposed to do now.
He was roused from his thoughts sometime later bythe sound of another plane full of travelers flowing into the gate where he’d sat.
Once again, there were people of all walks of life, looking happy and excited to have arrived, all filing in, carrying bags, and wearing big smiles.
And even though he knew for a fact that Lydia was still in Seattle and not on any plane, he still found himself scanning the river of passengers.
When he actually spotted a familiar face, he was so thunderstruck that he was on his feet before he had consciously decided to rise.
In his distracted state, he bumped into one of the oncoming passengers, who clomped down on his foot hard enough to let him know he wasn’t dreaming.
But if I didn’t fall asleep back on those chairs, then how in the world is this possible?
