The Older Man Part II

Chapter 2

At Last

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VINCENT'S POINT OF VIEW

Time passed agonizingly slow while I waited to hear back from Cheyenne. When a handful of months passed, I thought that it was reasonable and an expected amount of time to wait. When the months blended into a year, I had begun to lose all hope that she would ever contact me again.

It wasn't until she called me the other day that my hope in us being together again had been restored. Naturally, I was surprised to receive a call from her. That day I saw her last was one of the darkest I'd ever experienced.

I remember the look on her face when she ended things with me. She seemed so sure of herself but she didn't look very happy. It felt like she knew what she was doing the right thing but she didn't like that turning me away was the right thing, at least that's how it felt from where I was standing.

With all that I did to her, I was beyond grateful that she was even willing to consider being with me again. I've heard people say that if is a big word but I never truly understood what they meant until that day Cheyenne broke up with me. The small word was given meaning when she led me to the door. 

I admittedly clung to her last words for a generous amount of time after we split. It was naive of me to think that she would ever call me, but when we talked on the phone the other day, my insecurities and lingering doubts were eradicated.

We didn't have a very long talk on the phone.

She told me after we exchanged greetings that she wanted to see me so we could talk things over. I tried to hold back my excitement as we set up an ideal time to meet up. It sank into my subconscious that I was actually going to see her again. The fact alone filled my heart with ebullience. 

After we sorted out the details of our meeting, I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from saying 'I love you' to her when we hung up.

It was a few days after she called me that the day we agreed to meet had arrived. It still didn't feel real.

My heart was pounding erratically in my chest from the moment I woke up. As I got ready to head over to her parents' house, I panicked about how things would go when I got there. Cheyenne didn't have a particular tone in her voice when we talked on the phone. 

I couldn't tell if this was going to be good news, but considering the fact that, when I last her, she told me she would let me know if and when she was ready to give me another chance, I could only conclude that it was going to be about that.

A year had passed and I decided to get myself an apartment and a truck so I could start living a bit better than I was before. 

I still limited myself in areas so I could save money for a potential future with Cheyenne and I, and maybe I was stupid and naive to do that, but I stood by my decision. 

Plus, it was nice to be out of hotel rooms. I didn't mind it too much for the first couple months after my divorce from Rachel but after Cheyenne shut the door on our relationship last year, reality had slapped me in the face and told me to make some major adjustments.  My living situation was just one matter.