It Had to Be You

Moving On

In the months between summers, Nina moved on. She tried her best to form some version of a love life that did not hinge on Walker Andrews falling in love with her. She went out on a few dates and managed to hang onto a few men who were relatively cute, sweet and nice. Not one of them made her heart race or left her feeling invested but she gave herself credit. She was trying which was more than she had done last year.

At the moment, sometime around March, she found herself on her fifth date with a kind man named Michael. Michael worked in banking. He enjoyed long walks, hiking and owned a dog who Nina had met and did not like. They went to museums. They went to dinner. They had yet to sleep together which was her doing. She wasn't ready. She didn't trust him not because he was a psycho but because she didn't know him yet. In their five dates she had learned little about who he was. His style of dating was activity based which she enjoyed to an extent but each time they left each other, she didn't feel like she had gleaned anything more than his latest hobby. She knew they needed to break up considering five dates was just the right amount of time to get serious and serious was not something she wanted to be with this man. She enjoyed the idea that he was somewhere to go on the weekend. He said good morning and wished her a good day. But the spark wasn't there.

Nina was thinking all of this as she sat outside in the cold listening to him about the latest city election. She had tuned out somewhere around his insistence that she agree with him about all of his political stances. She nodded and allowed him to talk at her as she wondered how much time it would take her to finish her second cocktail. She was unnerved on the date. It wasn't Michael's fault. She had agreed to go out but she had slept weird. She'd had a dream about Walker and couldn't shake it. In it, she saw him on the street it was kismet level timing. The movie Serendipity came to mind and she wasn't sure if her dream was a vision coming to fruition or just her wanting to play out an imaginary scenario. In either case, she had woken up and felt completely restless. Now sitting across from Michael, the only thing she wanted to do was get out of here and fast.

As Michael droned on about his take on the New York City education system, she saw him. She saw him before he saw her and that gave her time to rearrange her face from a state of shock to complete understanding. She closed her open jaw and tried to look completely calm as he walked past their table.

"Walker, hey!" She called his name. He looked right at her and hesitated before coming over. She could see he was with someone but she already felt herself rising out of her chair to meet him. She ignored that Michael was halfway through a sentence and closed the three foot gap between them on the sidewalk.

"Nina. Hey." He looked away from her and struggled to keep her eye contact. The girl behind him wasn't Gabby."

"Hey, how are you?" She crossed her arms as the wind blew in her direction. It was far too cold to be having drinks outside. Damn Michael and his insistence on healthy lungs.

"Good thanks. I can see you're busy." He gestured to Michael who was scrolling on his phone.

"Oh yea, just on a date." She glanced over his shoulder to see the woman he was with. "Hi, I'm Nina." She thrust a hand out which the woman hesitantly took. Nina could understand. If she was on a date and she was introduced to a random woman she would be cautious.

"I'm Nora." The women shook hands and Walker coughed. "Right, we should get going. See you Nina." He gave a half hearted wave and headed down the block.

Nina took her seat at the table and Michael looked at her curiously. "Who was that?"

"Just an old friend." She didn't elaborate and Michael didn't ask more.

---

Later that night, Walker's name popped up on her phone.

"Good seeing you E." She stared blankly at the text. It was 11 o'clock at night. He had clearly waited until after his date to reach out and she hated that she knew that was true.

"You too." She hit send then added "Nora was nice."

She saw the text bubbles pop up and then disappear quickly before appearing again.

"She is. Your date seemed nice." He didn't specify if Nora was a date and she wanted to know what happened to Gabby.

"He's insignificant." She shot back. Which was true, Michael was insignificant to her. She had broken up with him via text right after she made it onto the subway.

"Not the one then?" He asked. She held her breath. She didn't want their texting to come to an end.

"No, not the one. I'm sure I'll meet him eventually."

"Maybe you already have."

"Have you?" She knew she was being bold. She knew she could scare him away with this but she didn't care.

"Might have. Night."

"Night Walker." Nina laid back in bed and felt the waves of depression and sadness role over her at losing his attention. She lived to be in his field of awareness and when that light shone somewhere else, all she felt was cold and lonely.