Part #4: The departure

We left the hotel at about 11:45, knowing that we HAD to get starbucks if we were going to make it back home. So we sat down and he ate some fatty pastry while I sipped on my coffee. Ironically I like my coffee...regular, squirts of vanilla and enough cream/milk in it for it to turn my skin-color. And yes, to test, I put my hand near the coffee and assess whether or not I have enough cream/milk in it.

So we talk the last couple of minutes, and it's clear that we are both not super-excited to return to real life. He mentions that he's seriously looking to move out of smallville, VA in at least a year and is on a quest to test a few cities. So who knows, perhaps a fantasy get away weekend is in store to go to chicago and pheonix.

So we sit in Starbucks prolonging the inevitable for at least 45 minutes to an hour. We get up and he walks me to my car, we hug, kissed a small bit, make a lot of eye contact and I say...I have a corny gift for you. He smiles and is like, huh?

What brought him and I together was a desire to escape reality due to various losses that we had experienced in 2008. So, I got an old unused jewelry box and turned it into a memory box. On red construction paper, I printed "Smile July 27-28," the top of the box lid. Inside, I left the following message:

Loss leaves us empty.
But learn not to close
Your heart and mind.
Allow life to replenish you.
When sorrow comes
It seems impossible...but
NEW JOYS wait to fill the void

Accompanied by the message, I encouraged him to continue creating joy and packing the memory away in the memory box. He smiled a genuine smile, gave me a hug and said that he's definitely putting this past weekend into the memory box.

The best way to summarize this weekend...Create memories that resemble fantasies.

AWWWWEEEE...I just received the following message from him: so, wanted to say thanks again for a great weekend. i had a lot of fun and i was sad to see our lil get-a-way come to a close...it was perfect. thanks again for my gift, it was very thoughtful.
hope you have a good week ahead! viva la charlotte 2008!