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He steps closer to me and meets my eyes. “Amber was a mistake. I never should have cheated on you. I miss you. You were always on my side.” He tries to keep his voice quiet, but I’m sure Mark heard.
I sigh and regard him for a moment. He’s lost weight. His eyes have dark circles under them and they seem sad. His clothes are clean but rumpled. A dress shirt tucked into dress pants, his collar unbuttoned. His hair has grown out a bit, and a beard is growing in. He always took pride in his appearance. I can tell he’s miserable, and the tiny part of me that used to love him feels bad for him. But it’s not my problem anymore.
“I was on your side. But you can’t change what happened. I’m sorry it didn’t work out how you wanted.”
He nods, then swallows. “Yea. Me too.”
Mark follows me as I walk away with brisk steps towards the check-out line. I catch Jeremy through the windows as he climbs into his Audi, parked at the curb. Amber yells at him, waving her arms around and pointing in the store. He stares out the window over the steering wheel with slumped shoulders and sighs before putting the car into gear and pulling onto the street. I shake my head. He did it to himself.
“Are you ok?” Mark asks as he grabs our bag and we head outside.
I nod. “Yea. That was awkward, huh?”
He chuckles. “Sorry about not correcting him. I just wanted to make him squirm.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Petty much?”
He shrugs as we take a seat at a picnic table in the small garden area outside of my office building. A moderately sized fountain bubbles nearby and birds chirp in the trees. “He hurt you. Asshole deserves much worse.” He digs around in the bag and pulls out his sandwich and hands me my salad.
“So why isn’t there a Mrs. Roper?” I ask.
He looks to the side with a soft smile. “There was.” He takes a bite and I stare at him. He swallows and reaches for the chips. “Cecelia was my high school sweetheart. We got married a week after graduation. She got cancer two years later. I joined the Marines a month after she died.”
My heart hurts for him, and I reach out and squeeze his arm. “I’m so sorry Mark.”
He shakes his head. “Those were the best years of my life.”
“You haven’t dated anyone since?”
“Off and on. But nothing has stuck. Cecelia made me promise I would fall in love again someday. I tried, but she set the bar high. I guess you could say she was a rare type of person.” His eyes twinkle and I smile at Jeremy’s repeated words. I knew Mark was a big softy, but I wasn’t aware he’d suffered so much.
“Tell me about her?”
A peaceful grin spreads across his face. “She was too pure for a delinquent like me. She told me the second she laid eyes on me, she knew I was it for her. Looking back, I fell in love with her at that moment too. But I was too young and stupid to recognize my soulmate. I tried to sabotage it, but she never wavered. Her parents hated me, for good reason, so we eloped at the courthouse. She gave me the best three years of my life that I’ll always cherish. She saved me. I know I’d be in jail or dead now if it weren’t for her.”
I lean my head on my hand as I listen. His entire being lights up and it’s humbling to watch. “She had this light about her. It was magical to be around.”
A tear slides down my cheek and I wipe it away. He blinks like he’s just realizing where he is and clears his throat. “Anyway, I miss her so goddamn much, but I’ll always be grateful for the time we had together. She saved my life, so I vowed to her and to myself that I wouldn’t throw it away once she passed. That’s why I joined the Marines. If I couldn’t be with her, then I’d spread what light of hers she gave me to the rest of the world.”
“Jesus, Mark. That’s beautiful.” I swipe away another tear.
He smiles and squeezes my hand. “She would have loved you. No doubt you would have been best friends within minutes.”
“Sounds like we would.”
We continue chatting while we eat, then I return to work. The way Mark described Cecelia makes me think of Luke. When I locked eyes with him in the alleyway, I felt something. I now realize it was my soul’s recognition of his. I finally found the right person.
