Sunflower

Chapter 1

Lucy

"I can't believe...after all this time...after everything..." Chris trails off, shaking his head in disbelief. "I don't know why you're acting as if this is the end for us! Why can't we make it work?! It's only two years!"

He sits down on the sofa and buries his face in his hands.

"You're going to be in Australia, Chris. That's on the other side of the world! We'll never see each other, and on top of that, the time difference will make it hard to stay in touch at all! How can we make this work?! How can this not be the end?!"

He looks up at me and my heart breaks at the sadness in his eyes. But I can't lose my resolve. If I cave, I'm only setting him up for heartbreak.

"Please, Lucy...I...I can't lose you. I can't let you go," he says weakly, his eyes pleading with me, begging me to see things his way.

I look down at the floor, inhaling deeply through my nose. All I want to do is break down and cry. Beg him to stay. Beg him to never leave me. But I can't do that. Because I love him, I know I have to do this. I have to let him go.

"You don't need the worry and stress of a long distance relationship weighing you down when you're supposed to be focusing on the biggest opportunity of your life."

"So somehow, the pain and heartache of a breakup is easier to deal with?" he asks, causing me to look up. "Why are you pushing me away? Why now? You knew I might take this deal. You encouraged me to take it. Why would you do that if you only intended to end our relationship if I did?"

I sit down next to him, hesitating for a long while. "I was afraid you wouldn't take the deal if I put our relationship on the line."

"How can you so easily walk away, huh? Five years, Lucy! Five years! We've made it through hell together a hundred times, so why couldn't we make it through two years of long distance?!"

"This isn't easy for me! I've thought about it a lot. I've cried about it a lot. I don't want to let you go! I just know...I don't want to watch us slowly crash and burn. And we will. You may not see it that way right now, but-"

"Just stop it!" he growls, grasping his short brown hair in his fists in frustration. "I don't want to hear your excuses. I don't care what your reasons are. You're giving up on me and that's really all I need know."

He stands up and starts for the door, and while everything inside of me wants to stop him, I don't. I can't. I will only make things harder for both of us if I hang on. I'll only drag him down with me. And he's too good for that.

Just as he makes it to the door, he turns to look at me.

"I've never told you why I called you Sunflower the first time we met," he says, looking down to avoid my eyes. "In all these years, you've never asked."

"Because my last name is Sunday?" I ask him.

"No," he says, finally meeting my eyes.

"Okay, so why did you call me Sunflower?"

"Because, when I look into your eyes, I see two golden brown sunflowers in the middle of a grassy field. It's always given me a sense of calm and clarity. I've studied those eyes of yours so much over the past five years, I know exactly what they look like, even when I can't see them. They captivate me. They always have." He takes a deep breath, hanging his head. "And they always will."

Without another word, he walks out the door.

After he's gone, I'm hit by a wave of shock, first. Are we really doing this? Is this really the end of such an incredible love story?