Strangers

He haunted her dreams still.  It had been years now, and Phaedra had tried to move on, desperate to let go of the one thing she had been unable to keep.  In her feeble attempts to go forward with her life she had broken more than a few hearts.  She didn’t mean to, each guy was as good a man as she could ask for – but none of them were Dane.

She had heard through the grapevine that Dane was happy, settled down and engaged.  Phaedra couldn’t help but think how lucky that woman was, hoping and wishing that whoever this woman was, that she knew what she had in him.  But Phaedra had her doubts, to be sure – after all, there was no one who could love him like she could.

As her mind wandered, she found herself in her favorite coffee shop.  A book was open and she was staring at it, but all she could think of as she stared blankly at the pages was that time Dane gave her his journal.  He gave it to her in trust, with permission to read anything she wanted.  A tear found its way out as she sniffled at the thought of the poetry he wrote to her, or what he had written about their fateful meeting.  Throughout her life, she had never felt so alone as she did in this moment.

Her coffee getting cold, oblivious to the rest of the world around her, she closed her book and stuffed it into her purse.  As she stepped outside, breathless from her soul being ripped out, she began to cry.  And her dress, that lovely yellow dress that always brightened her day, contrasted terribly with the storm building within her deep brown eyes.

Her knees were buckling beneath her, weakened by the pain in her heart, so she walked home, the tears flowing as she made her way up the stairs and just as she was nearing the top of the stairs she stumbled, crashing her shin into the corner and wincing as she cried out in frustrated anger and heartbreak.  She got back up, made it to her door and fumbled with the lock for a bit until she got in.

She had to feel him again, and she rushed to her secret box where she had stored all his letters, and though the blurred vision from the constant tears made for a rough read, his words found their way and made her smile again.

“I love you, my Angel of Light.  I am yours, and you are mine, always and forever.”