They Never Said It Would Be Easy

2017

January

It was New Years Day and Colin still had not returned from his first trip as a travel journalist. He was supposed to be back a few days before Christmas, but the trip was extended. Colin said that they needed a few more weeks to finish the story. I felt like I was an independent person and that I could handle this, but it was harder than I imagined it would be. I was is no way ready to give up the relationship that I had worked so hard to maintain, but I missed him a lot and I just wanted him to physically be with me. It was hard to not have him for Thanksgiving. I knew he wouldn't be there, but I fully expected him to be home for Christmas and even New Years. But, with a job like his, I learned that dates were not set in stone and that there would be unexpected twists and turns. The job was to get the story and if it wasn't done by the predicted date, then the trip was extended. It didn't matter how much I missed him or how badly I wanted him to come home, he wasn't leaving until the job was done.

I was at work, about the second week into January, when my phone began to ring. Colin's name appeared on the screen, so I paused my work and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey G, it's me."

"How's it going? Any word on when you will be home?"

"I'm leaving tomorrow. We haven't quite finished our work, but we need a few weeks at home to brainstorm and edit the material that we have right now. I can't wait to see you, Gigi."

I was happy to hear that he was coming home, but I felt a pang of sadness pierce through me when he said that he would be leaving again in just a few weeks. "I can't wait for you to be home. I have missed you so much," I said, trying to hide my pain and exude my excitement for his return.

The next day I stayed at home all day to make sure I didn't miss his arrival. I wasn't sure exactly what time he would be home and I wanted to be here when he returned. The hours slowly passed by. 4:00 pm turned into 5:00 pm, 5:00 pm to 6:00pm, and so on until it was 11:30 pm and I heard a knock on the door. I walked over from my spot on the couch and opened it to find Colin standing there with all of his bags.

"I couldn't wait any longer. You needed to be the first person I saw," Colin said, dropping his bags and pulling me into his arms.

I wrapped my arms around him and dug my head into his chest. His body was so warm. This was the feeling I had missed so much over the past two months. "Tell me about work. I want to hear everything."

"It's been a long day. Let's save it for the morning," he said as he grabbed my hand and pulled me to my room. There was time to talk about work tomorrow. We wanted to do something else tonight.

February

Things felt normal between Colin and I again. Since he has been back, we have tried do date nights at least once a week, which have included sushi dinners, happy hours, and local concerts if any of our favorite bands were touring at the time. One of our dates was my absolute favorite. We were celebrating our first Valentine's Day together in person and decided to wait a few days until the weekend so that we could make a day out of it. That afternoon, Colin told me to get ready for the date he had planned for us. I asked him what we were doing, but he insisted that it remain a surprise. So when I got home, I hopped in the shower, put on my favorite skinny jeans, grey v-cut shirt, and my black leather jacket. I walked downstairs and he pulled up outside of my apartment to pick me up. As I got in the car, I noticed a couple of blankets, pillows, and a picnic basket.

"Are we going on a picnic?" I asked.

"Hmm, something like that, but we have a stop to make first," Colin said.