There were five days left until Spencer was set to leave for LA. A several day cross-country slog of a road trip awaited him and his family when the time came to leave. Spencer’s heart had long called out for the west coast. All the adventures that awaited him out there, dreams to be made true, hopes to be realized, were dampened by dread. It was not fear of the unknown whose icy grip made him shiver, but rather fear of the known parting that was coming. Only some 17 days had passed since Spencer and Eloise had met, but their love was sudden and unyielding. A gust of summer wind.
That evening was Spencer and Eloise’s twelfth meeting. Warm summer evenings brought droves of people to the terrace on the lakefront. Friends and family congregated in the many tables and chairs. An abundance of partners on dates enjoyed the lively atmosphere. Food and drink were bountiful. Spencer and Eloise had found a table for two right down by the water. They each had a cone of ice cream that was melting slowly, bathed in the golden setting sun. They had little need for talk. They were close enough to the end that they wanted more than anything just to bask in each other’s company.
The sharp trill of a ringtone drove a cold knife into Eloise’s chest. Through all previous eleven meetings with Spencer, Eloise had been lucky enough to not have heard that trill once. But her luck ran out, and life came calling. Eloise stood up, her demeanor clouded.
“I’ve got to take this,” she apologized, stepping away from the table, answering the phone and finding a calmer place to take the call. Spencer remained rooted in his seat. Eloise’s response to the phone call made Spencer believe that this was the end of the line. An eternity of a couple minutes later, Eloise returned. A shadow had been cast over her. “I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to go. My family needs me home, so these next couple days are probably going to be pretty busy.” Her eyes no longer gleamed with life, nor did they shine with tears. Only a dull pain was left.
Spencer nodded. A storm of words raged in his gut. Jumbled declarations, grand gestures, and heartfelt confessions all surged and ebbed beneath the surface. They could not be strung together into something coherent. So Spencer, his eyes dulled just the same as hers, took a deep breath.
“Goodbye, Eloise.”
“Goodbye, Spencer,” Eloise turned and left. And that was the end. There was no final play for each of them to make. There was no thirteenth meeting. No ambiguous wording that left the loose ends untied and left the door for love open. It was a simple, crushing, almighty “goodbye.”
Soon, Spencer stopped counting down the days until he left, and was crammed in a car headed south and west with opportunity on the horizon. Eloise got out of her house one last time, flying east to a home that would finally let her stretch her wings.
In due time the pain of Spencer’s fifth and Eloise’s fourth loves faded away. Several months later, Spencer would meet his sixth love, one that would carry him far into the future. Eloise’s fifth and sixth and seventh loves came and went. In idle moments, thoughts of those 17 days and twelve meetings would fleetingly haunt them. Still they went on, counting the loves along the way.
FIN
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