We shared an underdressed kiss standing on the pavement in front of the airport. Bones rattled from February chill; breath turned misty like my eyes.
“Good luck,” I whispered into Justin’s shoulder as I untangled my arms from his back. “Maybe this will be the one.”
“Thanks.” He half smiled. “See you tomorrow.”
Justin boarded a New York-bound plane wearing his only suit pressed into neat lines.
I returned to our Detroit home with cold feet.
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash
This was quite powerful for such a short piece. I could visualize the two people saying goodbye at the airport.
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Thank you! Yes, we did this many times before my husband got his first job as an attorney.
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Love the way you wrote this…short but sweet!
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Thank you!
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I’m invested in Justin’s success now (that was neatly done in so few words). I hope this was the one… whatever it was he was going for (a job, I assume)!
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Thank you, Asha! Yes, our home was (and in so many ways still is) Detroit. But in 2009 after the auto industry collapsed there weren’t many jobs. We decided on a whim to go to NY instead. He studied and took the bar exam there, and miraculously after many flights (and falsifyling that he lived at his aunt’s in Long Island) got his first job there. Now here we are almost ten years later in beautiful Virginia!
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*falsifying
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Oh, that is the HAPPIEST update. How wonderful! Thank you for sharing that with me. I’m so glad things worked out as they did for you both.
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Thank you. It was hard leaving everything I loved in Detroit, but I love VA for different reasons. It’s my “grown-up” home.
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It’s a tense little piece. That strange in-between time, one foot in the past, the other foot poised perilously over a nebulous future. Good job capturing it!
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Thank you, Amy!
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So much said with so few words. Well done! 🙂
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Thanks, Lisa! 😘
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I am always happy when people write tight little stories. You don’t always need alot of words. Well done!
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Thanks, Stacie! ❤️
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I was there with you both, remembering the times I went to interviews and had the same conversation with my husband. Great piece, D! ❤
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Xoxo. Thanks, Melony!
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Beautiful! It made me think of our goodbyes when we were studying in different cities.
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Thank you, Parul!
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