To Make a Long Story Short(er)... Part 1

I finally realized the chapters in that last post could go on and on...so here is the "Reader's Digest" version of the ending.

Alan and I spent the entire weekend together stealing precious moments together while we helped his brother's family move into their new house. He stayed with his grandmother for the following week and we were together 24/7. Somehow, my curfew at home magically dissolved, and my Mom stopped waiting up on me to come in. Alan and I would spend the day together, go out, come home, eat dinner, rents some movies and fall asleep together on the couch in his g'ma's living room. Then we would wake up at 2 or 3 in the morning and he would hurry to get me home before my parents realized I hadn't made it in yet. (Later I realized that they knew perfectly well what time I got home each night...but wonderfully decided not to make an issue of it). Getting out of his truck after only our second date, I told him I loved him. (Something I had never said to anyone else). I didn't want him to feel like he had to say it in return so I jumped out (hitting my head on the door) and ran into my house. He called me within five minutes...his only words... "I love you too." Our week of bliss passed much too quickly, and before I realized it Friday had come. It was time for Alan to return to Texas. To his family...his job...his life without me. As we stood in my driveway in a pathetic attempt to say goodbye, something happened. The wind changed....the mood shifted....and I was questioning my own hearing ability as I heard Alan promise that he would come back to me...for me. Letting him go was to this day the hardest thing I have ever done. My heart broke and tears poured down my face as I watched his little purple truck round the corner at the end of my street and drive forlornly out of sight. I cried myself to sleep that night, and didn't want to get out of the bed the next morning. Nothing mattered. He was gone.