goodbye to you

"I want you but I'm not giving in this time."

It was odd because Lacey didn't really believe in trial and error. She never accepted that adage that one has to learn the hard way. She had never been a gambler, especially when it came to her personal life. Yet the past two years had been little more than a roll of the dice. And while she knew that some of the blame should be on her shoulders, she had no qualms about placing all of it with him. Devin.

Lacey met Devin in the most innocent of ways, even though know she found herself doubting that that meeting was as random as it seemed. But hopefully it was. Two people meet in a grocery store Raisin Bran versus Raisin Bran Crunch in the cereal aisle. He was charming, kind, and cute. He asked for her number and Lacey gave it to him. By their third date, they were practically inseparable. Maybe that was part of the problem, that things had happened too fast for either one of them to really be objective.

Their relationship was intense. The arguments were big, and always contained insulting words and harsh accusations that shook Lacey to the core. But Devin always seemed so sincere, so apologetic and willing to compromise after the fight was over. He always admitted defeat, which Lacey enjoyed at the time, but now realized was his strategic way of being in control of the relationship. But the good days were so good that it helped her forget the bad. Peaceful walks along the water's edge, strolling hand in hand. Late night philosophical conversations. A shared love of classic movies and bourbon.

But the bad days were so bad. And they had become far too frequent by the end. Lacey thought maybe they had always been unraveling, that they had never really been united in the first place. That somehow she had fallen into the spider's web that was Devin's love and by some stroke of grace she had survived without getting her head bitten off.

But her heart was breaking as she walked out the door of his apartment. They both knew it would be the last time without it being said. Devin didn't fight it, as if his conscience took over for a moment and demanded he let her go. She made it out the door, down the hallway, and into the elevator before she looked back. Even then she was mad at herself for the tiny speck of hope that existed inside her. Hope that Devin would be standing in that door, with tears in his eyes and a small speck of his own hope that she would come back to him. But Devin wasn't there and Lacey shakily pushed the button for the lobby.

superwoman

"I'm not the kind of girl that you can let down and think that everything is okay."

Jeremy walked in the door of his apartment and immediately knew something was off. Random items were missing from the living room. A lamp, the ottoman, the dvd player. At first he thought they had been robbed. As he reached towards the telephone to call the police, he had a second, more cutting realization. The things that were missing were all Lisa's things.

He rushed into the bedroom and sure enough all her clothing, shoes, and jewelry were gone. He checked every drawer and every corner of the closet. She had even cleared out her clothes from the laundry basket. Lisa was gone. After three years, she was gone just like that.

Jeremy sat down heavily on the couch. He wanted to call her, to demand for her to come home. Or maybe to beg for her to return. Maybe both. But he knew Lisa well. Before he could call he needed to figure out what caused her to leave.

So he thought but nothing came to mind. After all things had been fine when he left three days ago for his cousin's wedding in Toronto. Lisa had wanted to come but couldn't get off work. So Jeremy was gone for three days. Three days without coincidence.

Days went by. Jeremy called Lisa and left numerous voice messages in vain. She never called back. Jeremy was reluctant to replace any of the items Lisa had left with under the increasingly unlikely hope that she would return.

About three weeks after Lisa left, Jeremy ran into his friend Phillip at the store. And Phillip asked two questions that cleared everything up. He wanted to know what Jeremy had gotten Lisa for her birthday and why he wasn't at the birthday party Lisa had planned three months in advance.