This is the Goodbye Scene

Mon Amor (pt 2)

*****If this was a full story, there would have been a make-up scene, but this book is about goodbyes. In a novel, or novella, or short story, they would have run into each other a few times and she would have apologized profusely, and there would definitely be a torrid makeup sex scene, I'll probably write that later. Reader, just know that they somehow got back together, but she still needs to leave France, probably without him.*****

She was surrounded by luggage. She did not think that she had accumulated this many things during her few months in France, but I guess a Euro here a Euro there really adds up...

She was waiting for him to come back with a couple of coffees. She was caught up thinking about everything that happened during her time in France. She spent so much time wrapped up in her own life in the states that she didn't give herself the chance to appreciate the life that was happening around her, and now that is all she did, and she did not want to leave. 

He returned with half a smile, and coffee in hand. He was just as upset that she had to leave, but he felt in his chest that their story wasn't over yet.  Finding the words to say this, in any language, was difficult. He handed her her cup and sat in the seat next to her.  "There's this story, my mother would tell me as a boy, she said, there was this lady bug who would crawl up a flower, it got to the top and when it was there, there was a bee getting the pollen, and the lady bug would talk to it, and it would talk to the lady bug and they left, and the next day, the lady bug crawled up the same flower, and the bee was there, and they talked and this would happen over and over, every day they did this, and they never got bored of each other, and then one day the bee was doing the pollinating, and it was very sad, and the lady bug asked what was the matter and the bee explained that their queen was moving and they needed to find a new hive far away and the bee didn't think that it was going to come back to this daisy every day, it wasn't going to be able to talk to the lady bug every day and that was very upsetting for both of them, and they spent the whole day and the whole night together talking and laughing and then the bee, as much as it didn't want to, said to the lady bug, I have to go, my queen is being moved now and I need to help my family. The ladybug was very sad, but said to the bee, 'okay, thank you for talking with me this night, and all of these days.' and the bee said 'it was my utmost pleasure to be speaking with you' and the bee left. For a while, the ladybug came back to that daisy every day, and then every other day, and then once a week. The bee was not there. Then the ladybug would visit the daisy two times a month, it decided it would sit there for a while every visit. Months and months and months had gone by like this. Then on one of the days the ladybug came and sat for hours, as it was getting up to leave the bee landed on the flower, it looked a little different from age and time apart, but it was the bee she had grown so fond of. The bee was so happy to see the ladybug on the daisy that it nearly crashed into the lady when it first landed. They were excited and they greeted each other and they talked and talked and talked for hours and hours, and they had stories to tell and they grew even more fond of each other. They ended up staying in each other's lives forever."

By the time he was finished with his story they were nestled into each other and holding one another. For the entirety of the story, she had been tracing the hand and arm that was wrapped around her shoulder, listening to him, and eventually holding him close to her in any way she could. "So what you're essentially saying is, if you love something, set it free, and if it's meant to be it will come back to you."

"Sort of I guess, but not without hard work. That ladybug had to come to that flower every day, eventually not every day, but it still had to go. It had to make time and effort and it had to want to be there. But yes. If you love something, it needs to have wings to fly, or it will not feel safe enough to come back to you. If neither one of them put in the effort to show up it would not have worked."

Sitting in that comfortable silence for a moment, she looked at him, kissed his cheek, and said "I feel safe enough to come back. Just so you know." He smiled, turned to face her, and said "so do I." then they kissed, for longer was appropriate at an airport. Sitting with each other was her favorite part of this goodbye if she had a favorite. They were as wrapped in each other as possible. When the flight attendant called for the plane to start boarding, they both stiffened. She hesitated to get up, and when he stood, he turned to her hand outstretched. "C'mon mon cher, we knew this was going to happen eventually." she looked at him, water swelling in her eyes. "I have a plan." 

"You have a plan?" 

 "Oui. I will walk you to the gate, and then to the door, I will walk with you until I am not allowed to pass anymore and we will say goodbye, and then we will turn into long-distance lovers, in completely different time zones, until we are not long-distance anymore and will embrace each other like this moment right now was just the moment before, and then we will have pizza or if we are here, we will go to that bistro that we love and all will be... enough. Until the next moment, we can embrace again."

As she was listening to his perfect solution, she started to cry. She loved this man that was standing in front of her with all her heart and she did not want to leave. She had to, she was going to, but she did not want to, and she couldn't move.

"Mon Cher, if you miss your plane you will be not allowed to come back, and we will never be able to go to that bistro we love, and for my plan to work you need to get on the plane and you need to leave." he was started to get choked up, he stumbled on the word leave. She stood, taking his hand and placing it on her lower back, she wrapped her arms around him, and she kissed him, more than she ever had before, he inhaled, and his other hand had made its way to her cheek, caressing her in a way that his fingers were now tangled in her hair and he was pressing her closer to him. After what felt like hours, they parted. He grabbed her bags, and only handed them to her at the door which he was not allowed to pass through. They kissed again, leaving room for others to pass, he held her face in his hands looking at every inch of it. "Goodbye, my love."

"I will call you when I land, I will do whatever it takes."

He kissed her forehead, looking into her eyes. "So will I."

She walked away from him in an embrace until the last moment, arm outstretched, holding hands until it was just their fingers, and then he pulled her back for one more kiss until she pushed away from him. He kept her in his sight as long as he could, and he sat there and waited until the plane was off the ground. When she was up in the air, flying away from him, he left. He did cry, not like anyone would imagine. There was no sobbing in the car before driving, but he cried. Tears were falling while her drove home and when he got there it felt emptier than it ever had. He drank what alcohol he had left, and he waited for her to call and say that she was safely home. Much later, when the phone sang out the special tone he set for her, he was more delighted than he ever had been before she came into his life. They talked. For hours and hours and hours.