PART 3: Moving On
***
Saturday morning was just like my mood. Bright and sunny, but with a cloudless sky that somehow felt empty and cold.
For the first time, I could clearly see that a future did indeed exist for me. Today was the first day of the rest of my life. Very clichΓ©, but very true in this case. I'd been given a blank slate. I could start fresh. Think of every catchphrase that would apply and throw it at me. I was free.
And yet that newfound freedom had come with a price. Courtney was gone. And her absence was now an empty hole in my heart. The first time she had left was just a trial run. Intellectually, I knew that she was gone. But for months I'd locked my happy memories of her inside of me, trapping them in, afraid to let them go. I wasn't ready to break up with her yet. Whenever she had called, I'd pretended that we were still together, having a long distance relationship or something. Before, when I had seen a photo of Courtney, I glanced fondly after it as if she were only out for a few hours and would be returning soon.
But while time had not healed all wounds, it did allow me to get used to Courtney's absence. And so by last night, after months of acclimating to life without her, I was able to take the shock and have the closure I needed. We had parted on awkward terms the first time. But not this time.
When we'd been dating, Courtney had been way too much for me to handle. She was vibrant, sexy, and constantly in motion. She didn't have time to get bogged down with a deep emotional connection. And with her sex drive, I had just been in way over my head. I was the one hopelessly in love, a feeling she didn't share and wasn't ready for. When she had walked out of my life the first time, I hadn't really believed it. Inside, I was always just waiting for her to come back.
Now I knew better. Now I was a calm, rational human being.
Hanging on the wall next to my bed, I saw a photo of Courtney and me snuggling together. Now the pain felt fresh. I couldn't pretend anymore. The anger came automatically as I lashed out, punching the glass frame straight back. Shards of glass fell to the floor around my bloody knuckle.
Breathe...
I was moving on. It was a sunny day out.
Good weather to go for a walk.
It was the final month of my sophomore year. Classwork was piling up and Finals were just around the corner. I could head to the library, but my brain couldn't focus and studying just wasn't an option.
Back out in the fresh air once again, I just started walking. Mentally I was flailing out in every direction, trying to find something to latch onto and stop the rapid-fire pace in my head. And then I finally had that something.
I filled my mind with all the happy memories I'd taken away from this past semester. Unsurprisingly, most of those memories had something to do with Anna. Like the way she got so excited after beating me at Uno. Or the little smile that crawled onto her face after a particularly sarcastic (but funny) remark. I thought back at all the hours we had spent together just as friends. Anna was a sweet, still innocent girl, and I would be lucky to have her in my life.
But I knew right then that I shouldn't start a relationship with her.
Right now, I was still just damaged goods. It wouldn't be fair to Anna. A semester of denial had not done enough to let me get over Courtney. And now the wound was still fresh in my heart. If I hooked up with Anna on the rebound, our relationship would be doomed to failure.
It was a good thing my epiphany had come when it did, just barely before I started dating Anna as opposed to afterwards. Because now I still could nip our budding relationship in time to remain good friends. And I really needed good friends right now.
I had to make everything right. So I turned at the next street and made a beeline for the girls' apartment.
***
Surprisingly, Anna was home when I got there, still in her pajamas. She had a regular Saturday morning meeting and didn't usually get back for another half hour at least. I'd been counting on those thirty minutes to compose what I wanted to say. But now all I had left was instinct.
"Hi." Anna smiled up at me and got up from her spot on the couch. A throwaway girls magazine dropped onto the coffee table, a far cry from her usual study material. Perhaps she couldn't really focus either. She stood right in front of me as we rather awkwardly looked at each other. "I was wondering when you'd be coming by," she told me.
I was still searching for the right words. **Why couldn't I have had more time to think about this?** Then I decided that an apology is always a good way to start. "I'm sorry about last night. I-"
"Don't be," she interrupted. "Stuff happens. And we were both rather surprised. Courtney had a big impact on both our lives."
"I know. And that's why we can't be together. Last night, Courtney and I-"
Anna interrupted again. "Don't say it. I can guess, but I don't even want to know what happened." Anna's eyes were hard, serious. And at the same time she was showing me a tender vulnerability I'd never seen in her before. This was as wide open as Anna's emotions ever got. "What you had with Courtney was very special. I get that. But it's not the important thing right now."
"But what Courtney and I had is still a big influence on me and my emotions right now."
"That doesn't matter to me, either." Anna stood closer to me and reached up to wrap her arms behind my neck. "The only thing that matters to me is that right here, right now, you show me what it means to make love. I don't want to wait another day."
"Excuse me?" Surprise was an understatement for me.
She pulled her head back while keeping her hands locked behind my neck. "Do you like me?"
"Of course."