Page 29 of Worlds Apart
A relationship can be good and still not be the right thing.
Martin closed his eyes. “I’m saying that what we had was beautiful, and I would not trade it for anything.” He swallowed the lump in his throat. “But I think it’s time to move on.”
* * *
Sunny staredat the short message on the screen.
Happy birthday. I hope you are having a wonderful day. You deserve every good thing.
Seeing a message from Martin should have made her want to throw her phone against the wall, but it just made her impossibly sad.
I miss you.
I miss your smile.
I miss your laugh.
I miss hearing about your day.
I miss hearing the birds on your balcony.
She was twenty-nine and instead of the big party she’d been planning in her head when Martin came to visit her, she was spending the day at the office, then meeting her sister at her favorite wine bar before they joined their parents, Lulu’s husband Chaz, and her two-year-old niece at her parents’ club for a very civilized dinner.
In the three weeks since Martin had broken things off, Sunny had buried herself in work, only telling Lulu about it the week before.
She had to admire her sister’s restraint. She hadn’t said ‘I told you so’ even once.
“Do you want me to fly to Kenya and beat him up?”
Sunny had tried on the mental picture of her five foot, two-inch sister—who probably weighed one hundred twenty pounds sopping wet—standing up to Martin’s broad shoulders and near six-foot height.
It made her feel slightly better that Lulu had taken her side, but not really. The problem was… Martin was right and she missed him.
His life was there, and his visa rejection was only the final sign that what everyone had been saying was correct: you couldn’t have a long-distance relationship if it had no future.
Her phone started buzzing with a video call.
Please don’t let it be him…
She closed her eyes, willing it not to be her ex… whatever he was. It felt strange to call Martin her ex-boyfriend when they’d never really had a chance to be together in the first place.
Luckily, it was Alice.
“Happy birthday, my friend!” Alice’s giant smile filled the screen and it was impossible for Sunny not to smile. “Ah! How are we twenty-ninealready?”
“We didn’t die, so getting older was the only option?”
“Oh, someone is in a mood.” Alice stuck out her lips in a pout. “What on earth is going on? No one tells me anything! It’s forever since I’ve talked to you. I go home for a couple weeks to help my sister with her new baby, then I come back to a cranky boss and a moping friend. What happened?”
“I didn’t know your sister had a baby. Congratulations. Boy or girl?”
“Don’t change the subject! I’ve got like thirty-seven nieces and nephews, will you tell me what’s going on with you and Martin?”
“Nothing.” She shrugged. “I think we both care about each other a lot, but we realized that it just wasn’t realistic to build a relationship with no future.” She cleared her throat. “His life and responsibilities are in Kenya and I respect that. And like you said, we’re getting older; we need to be intentional about relationships.”
Alice stared at the screen. “What kind of bullshit is this? You two are in love with each other.”
Sunny felt the tears starting to well in her eyes. “Alice, it’s my birthday. Please don’t make me—”
