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Noah POV

When I returned to Boston after Elle's conference in Florida, there was not much time left before I moved to Los Angeles. I had to work until Thanksgiving for the Boston office but with fewer and fewer clients so I could think of staying in Los Angeles and taking a 3-day trip about every 2 weeks here. It was better than nothing. My apartment was empty, the moving truck had left for California.

I arrived in LA on a Friday afternoon and picked Elle up from the hospital before heading to the notary to get the keys to our new home. We arrived at our new house in the evening. Elle walked in and breathed a sigh of relief. For her, it was a 4-year wait to have a home again. I took a bottle of champagne out of the car, a gift from my mother, which we drank on the terrace while watching the sunset.

The only piece of furniture that was delivered that evening was our new mattress. So we spent the night on the mattress on the floor. The lot of moving...

My moving truck arrived the next morning with all my boxes and supplies that I had shipped from Boston. Even though I will have to make trips between LA and Boston until Thanksgiving, when I saw the truck arrive I realized that my life had finally returned to LA. Elle and I spent the morning unloading the boxes as there were no major appliances to move, so help was unnecessary. In the afternoon, I left an exhausted Elle at home and drove to pick up the few belongings she had put in storage when her father moved to Chicago.

I carried the boxes in the jeep until I was intrigued by a box that was lighter than the others, in fact I thought it contained absolutely nothing. I examined it to find that my name was written on it, written in Elle's handwriting. I opened it to see the Harvard jersey I had bought her my freshman year, the teddy Bears dressed as a perfect Crimson football player with my old player number on the back, a dried rose that was probably the one I gave her at the Dunes and a plane ticket in Elle's name from LA to Paris and another from Rome to LA dating from the summer before she started at Johns Hopkins. I remembered what those tickets represented.

Flashback to LAX, 2 years after the breakup

I came back to LA for a month before the start of my internship in Boston in a law firm to come celebrate my little brother's 20th birthday. And my brother's birthday... also involves Shelly's birthday. As much as I wanted to avoid her during the first year of our breakup, I wanted to see her this year. It had been two years and I wanted to see if there could be a reconciliation possible. I was pretty nervous when I arrived at LAX. Would Shelly be with my brother at home? Or will I only see her at their birthday party?

On my way down to the baggage carousel area, I located my brother giving a brown-haired girl a hug. I would recognize this girl anywhere, I knew it was her. I never thought she would pick me up from the airport. That's when I noticed she was carrying a suitcase? She backed away from my brother and walked away with the guy whose photo I had seen on social media, heading towards security before I even reached the bottom of the stairs. She hadn't come to pick me up, she was going on a trip... with another guy.

I was so shocked by what I had just seen that I didn't even hear Lee when he wished me welcome back, instead looking in the direction where Shelly had disappeared. Lee told me in the car that she had left for medical conferences in Paris and Rome. She wouldn't come back until after I left. He thought I was relieved like this but the truth is I was disappointed...really disappointed!

Back to the present

I shook my head to bring myself back to the present when I saw that there was a letter at the bottom of the box. It was dated a few weeks after I saw Elle from afar at the airport.

Dear Noah

Another summer day has just passed while I am in Paris for a conference. Despite the fact that I am surrounded by my friends and colleagues, I realized that I have felt really alone since I met you at the airport in LA. I don't know if you saw me or even recognized me! I realized that despite all the effort I put in, like going on an adventure in Europe, the fact remains that... I miss you!

I told myself that I was going to write you what I feel but I know that I will probably never have the courage to send you my letter. I know you deserve better than my clumsy attempt to hear from you. I wanted to tell you that I really wish I were back home and we could go back to being "us" like nothing happened. Instead, I'm in Paris trying to do the best with this freedom you gave me.

I found out today that I have been accepted into medicine at John Hopkins University. So I won't be in LA for several years. I don't know if I will ever return home. Only time will tell... but I still hope that we both come home...***

Shelly

Elle POV

We are not aware of the impact that having a home can have...until we lose it. Ever since my father moved to Chicago and sold my childhood home, I haven't felt at home anywhere. So, when the notary handed us the keys to the house, I felt as if a page in my life had just been turned. There was practically nothing in the house when we walked in yesterday but it really felt like home. The evening Noah and I spent there watching the sun go down while drinking champagne did me a lot of good.

The next afternoon, the house was an incredible mess with Noah's moving boxes scattered here and there. Half of the large pieces of furniture had just been delivered, the rest will arrive tomorrow. After the little nap that Noah forced me to take on the terrace, I told myself that I would start by distributing his boxes in the right rooms while waiting for his return with my boxes that I left in storage.

I left a few boxes in the kitchen and a box of his winter clothes in the guest room when I discovered a box with my name on it. My heart stopped beating when I opened the box. There were some things that belonged to me (2 T-shirts, a pair of panties, a pair of earrings, my toothbrush) that I had forgotten in his room 6 years ago, the concert ticket of Linkin Park that I had given him by Chloe for his 20th birthday, the frame with the photo of the two of us in front of Fenway Park and the box of my engagement ring with the invoice dating from 6 years ago. There was also a letter :

Dear Shelly

I just got on a plane again to go back to Boston even though I know you'll be back from Rome in a few hours. I know I'm incredibly lucky to be at Harvard, but the truth has been since I got in that I wish I could have stayed home with you. Despite being surrounded by friends, I feel so alone. I feel so far from where you are...I miss you every day!

Since we broke up, I feel like I'm living someone else's life. I know that all it takes is for you to be with me for my world to turn out the way it should. But I know it wasn't your dream! And that's okay, you deserve to live your own dreams!

Just the fact that you believe in me and what I can do gives me the strength to continue! Hoping that one day you will allow me to come home...near you!***

Noah

My eyes were full of tears when I finished reading the letter. I then heard a door open and close :

- Elle!" Noah shouted to me in a quavering voice from downstairs.

- I'm upstairs!" I said wiping my tears.

I heard him go up the stairs 3 at a time before he entered the room holding my own keepsake box with the letter I had left there. It's crazy how we had the same emotions at the same time for all these years without ever talking about it! If we could have just been honest in that moment, we might have saved ourselves years of heartache.

I stood up then he took me in his arms as we both cried :

- I'll be home tonight!" I whispered to him with my face against his chest.

- I'm coming home, close to you!" he said to me, letting his nose descend along mine before kissing me.

Our exile was over! We were both back home!

***
paraphrase of the home song by Michael Bublé