Miles from where you are

They say that distance makes the heart grow fonder, but I’m beginning to worry that might not be true.

When you left, we knew there would be challenges to making this thing between us work. We wouldn’t be able to see each other every day, but we’d call, skype, text – you know, all of those things we can do in the 21^st century that are supposed to make it easier for a long-distance thing like ours to work.

Even though I know you’re far away, I kept repeating to myself that we could make this work. I just kept thinking about that saying because it gave me some comfort to think that being apart would make you miss me, and then that passion of separation and longing to see each other again would make is simple to keep this flame alive.

But as more time passes, hour by hour, day by day, month by month, I’m beginning to question everything. Is distance making your heart grow fonder? Or is it just making me easier to forget? That city you’re in offers so many opportunities for you to forget about me. You’re meeting people at your new job. You’re seeing a whole crowd of new faces at the bar. That sports team you joined to meet new people is probably allowing you to do just that.

It’s not that I don’t want you to find new friends, I do. I want you to be happy and hav the time of your life, but when you get back to your apartment, as you’re relaxing from the night of fun and excitement, I still want you to be thinking about me.

Maybe it’s just selfishness because when you’re out at that hot new club, I’m at our old hangout. I’m there with our shared group of friends, and I’m drinking the same sour I always am. All that’s missing is you. There’s still the ghost of your memory hanging around everything I do here, so I’m always thinking about you. But what’s there in your new home to remind you of me? We haven’t gone to the indie theater together. We haven’s checked out the coffee shop there. We haven’t split that gelato cone in the summer heat. We haven’t made any memories there for you to be reminded of me. I think that’s what scares me.

I hope when I come visit, we’ll be able to make some new memories up there. There’s so much to explore, maybe we’ll find a cute little ice cream parlor, and then whenever you get your inevitable ice cream craving, you’ll stop by there and think of me. That’s all it would really take to help me take off the nerve. That one place where you can go to think of me. That way, if distance does indeed make the heart grow fonder, when you are missing me, you’ll have a place where you can go to remember just how much I love you. Just like when I go to our favorite park and sit on the bench where we used to picnic, I just think about how happy you make me, and then I know that everything between us is going to be okay.