I had to remind myself to tell my brain to tell my body to breath.

With every step he made my breaths got shorter.

I’m nervous.

He’s here. He’s in the car next to me now.

I can’t look at him but I can’t look away.

I attempt both.

I must look crazy.

“Can I get a hug?” he says.

…we embrace.

It was the quickest and longest hug of my life.

My tears roll down his back, his tears ran down mine

and in that second our souls came back to our bodies.

they had been gone so long.

I sat there exposed, the way I had always been with him.

the way I had never been with anyone else.

my best friend.

he was the only one that ever really saw me, and I only I saw him.

he told me his life story from the time he left my world to the present moment.

I sat, I listened. This man had a whole other life that didn’t include me.

New friends, new job, new home, new life.

He looked different, yet nothing beyond his eyes had changed.

…they still read “I Love you”… just like they always had.

The very thing that made me hesitant to agree to this meeting.

I knew my eyes would read the same.

This ring-less man was my husband

and me, his ring-less wife had a secret to share.

deep breath.