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Tears instantly formed in my eyes. Griffin was the sweetest man I’d ever met.
If I had thought he was handling our upcoming separation okay, I’d have been wrong. He was just as distraught over it as I was.
It meant everything to me that he wanted me to make something, especially for him to take back to Hawaii with him.
“Griffin,” I whispered.
He lifted our clasped hands up to his mouth and pressed a kiss to the back of my hand. “If I can’t have you there, I want a piece of you with me.”
My emotions bubbling to the surface, I couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down my cheeks. I hadn’t wanted to think about this, and now I had no choice. Because I wanted Griffin to have something special to look at or use every day that would remind him of me, that would make him smile because I couldn’t be there to make it happen myself.
I inhaled deeply and asked, “What am I going to make you?”
“Whatever you want me to have,” he answered.
At that moment, if I could have ripped my heart from my chest and boxed it up for him to take with him, I would have. Because Griffin had my heart now.
I’d felt it happening for weeks, and there was no way I could continue to deny it any longer.
I was in love with him.
Too terrified to tell him, but feeling so compelled to do something, I leaned toward him. Griffin leaned in my direction, and then I kissed him, hoping he could feel even just a fraction of what he meant to me.
And when I eventually pulled back, I said, “I’m not very artsy, but I’m determined to make this thing, whatever it ends up being, the best gift you’ve ever received.”
He smiled back. “I’m looking forward to it.”
At that, Griffin gave me another kiss before he exited the vehicle and came around to open my door. Then the two of us had the best night together, savoring every second we had left with one another.
* * *
It came too fast.
I wasn’t ready.
I needed more time.
Truth be told, I wasn’t convinced there’d be any additional length of time I could have requested that would have felt like enough. Nothing could have prepared me for this.
Because it wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
Griffin was leaving to head back to Hawaii today, and I was struggling to keep it together.
I knew people did long-distance relationships and made them work, but this felt like torture. It was akin to cutting off a limb.
“I can’t believe you have to go,” I cried.
Griffin’s strong arms tightened around me and held me close to his solid body. I was holding on to him with everything I had. I never wanted to let him go.
He kissed the top of my head. “I know. It went by so fast. Two months felt like two days.”
I tipped my chin up, dropping my head back to look up at him. “What are we going to do?” I asked, knowing we’d already had this discussion every day for the last week.
Griffin lifted a hand to the side of my face, gently stroked along the skin there, and allowed his eyes to roam over every feature. As his fingers began to shift back into my hair and ultimately settled at the back of my head, he reminded me, “We’re going to count down the days until we can see each other again.”
“August is so far away,” I pointed out. That was another phrase Griffin had grown accustomed to hearing over the course of the last week.
Unsurprisingly, having to face Griffin’s impending departure had been incredibly difficult. As it turned out, neither one of us really seemed capable of talking about it rationally unless we were discussing how and when we’d be able to see each other again.
