He Called Me ‘Jealous’ While She Hanged Off Him in a Bridal Party Chapter 08
The procedure was quick. My father’s health was slowly improving too.
When they pushed the anesthesia into my veins, I knew that part of my life was over for good.
Nathaniel was there when I came out. He glanced at the plane ticket on my phone. “Where do you want to go?”
“I don’t know yet. Just want to wander a little. Clear my head.”
He nodded, said nothing else, and quietly helped me get my things together.
I left a month later.
Nathaniel didn’t come with me. He just took me to the airport.
I went a lot of places.
I drove down the Pacific Coast Highway. I took it slow.
Partly because my body was still healing, and partly because I didn’t want to rush anymore.
What was the point of rushing?
For ten years I’d rushed full–speed, too fast to really see the person standing next to me. Too fast to realize I
was bleeding out, calling it love.
Now I wanted to go slow.
Slow enough to figure out who I was again.
I went to Sedona too.
On the train heading west, I met a girl a few years younger than me, traveling alone. She said she was
healing. Five–year relationship. Her boyfriend left her for someone else.
She asked, “What about you? Why are you going to Sedona?”
I thought about it. “Healing too, I guess.”
“How long were you together?”
“Ten years.”
Her eyes went wide. She didn’t say anything for a second. Then she exhaled. “Okay, I feel way better about my five now.”
I laughed.
She smiled, but then she went quiet. “Do you think we’ll be okay?”
I looked out the window. “Yeah. We will.”
Wounds heal eventually.
People do too.
Halfway through my trip, I thought about Cody again.
It felt like another lifetime.
No hate. Definitely no love.
Like he’d simply vanished from my world.
The morning I left Arizona, I got up early to watch the sunrise. I stood on the red rocks, wind whipping at my face.
My phone buzzed. Nathaniel.
[You okay?]
[Really okay.]
I hit send and added, [Thank you.]
A second later, his reply came back. [Always.]
No extra words. He’d always been like that–never pushing, never crossing a line.
But I knew he’d be there.
The phone buzzed again.
[I’ll be here.]
My eyes burned a little. I couldn’t tell if it was the wind or something else.
These past weeks, I’d come to know myself better. The quiet inside me had grown.
I knew it was time.