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N either of them was saying anything, which actually said a lot when Sophie thought about it. She was driving Bryce to the airport, and Bryce had her hand in her lap. Every few minutes, Bryce would bring it to her lips to kiss the inside or the outside of Sophie’s palm. Then, she would put the hand back down, and the link between their fingers would become tighter.

The previous night, when they made love, Sophie could have sworn that Bryce had been so close to telling her that she loved her at least three different times. The first moment had been right after Bryce had slipped inside her while she stared down into Sophie’s eyes. The second had been after Sophie had made Bryce come after slowly taking her with her mouth and then resting her head on Bryce’s thigh, not wanting to move an inch in that moment. The third had been when they had finally lain spent and on their sides, facing one another. They’d both come before that. They’d taken time to recover, and Bryce had rolled off of her. In that instant, Sophie had thought that they were too far apart as they were no longer touching. Bryce had been about a foot away from her, and something about that had felt wrong. Then, Sophie had remembered that Bryce wouldn’t always be in her bed next to her, so she hadn’t said anything. Her face must have still said something , though, because Bryce had opened her mouth. It had closed after she’d only gotten out one syllable.

So many times, but Bryce hadn’t said it. Sophie hadn’t, either. The timing was off. Bryce was leaving, and they’d only been together for days, not months. Even though her friends had all fallen in love quickly, something about that actually happening to her felt impossible. She’d watched them all fall fast, but then, they’d had this entire past year to fall slowly as well. Now, one of them was marrying another, and Sophie guessed that given Melinda’s response to Monica finding the ring, she and Kyle would be close behind them.

It would be difficult for Sophie to watch Bridgette tell Monica that, yes, she would marry her, and probably even more difficult for her to sit around a table with everyone after because they would be with their significant others. Sure, Jill would be there, and she was still single, so she would at least have her, but Sophie no longer felt single. Something had transpired during these past several days that made her feel very much not single. Sophie felt taken in that way that probably should have come after several weeks or months of dating but had hit her the moment she’d met Bryce for the first time.

She knew that Bryce was the one. She was madly in love with her and wanted to spend the rest of her life with her, and this distance was only going to delay that inevitability. That was it. It would only delay . Sophie nodded to herself as she drove. It wouldn’t prevent it. She would make sure of that.

Bryce lifted her hand to her mouth again and kissed the tip of Sophie’s index finger, which was new, so Sophie turned to her and gave Bryce what she knew was a weak smile. Bryce returned it with a weak one of her own. It was only then that, despite being the one who was actually driving, Sophie realized that they were just outside of the airport.

She swallowed hard and focused on finding the short-term parking because she couldn’t say goodbye to Bryce on the curb while a traffic cop yelled at her to hurry up and move her car. She turned into the garage, took the ticket that would likely mean she would be paying twenty bucks for every ten minutes that she was here, and found a spot on the third level. There had been two spots on the first level and at least six on level two, but Sophie had kept going around and around in the garage. She wanted to delay this as much as she could. They’d left with enough time for a goodbye before Bryce hit security, but that would happen in front of people, and in her car, they were alone.

“Are you sure you want to come in?” Bryce asked. “We can say goodbye here.”

“I’m sure,” Sophie replied as she turned the car off and turned to Bryce. “I just…”

“Want as much time as possible?” Bryce guessed.

“Yeah,” she replied.

Bryce turned in her seat and said, “You’ll get the verbal offer today, and you’ll ask them for the start date.”

Sophie nodded.

“Then, I’ll see you before you start the new job,” Bryce added.

“Yeah,” Sophie replied.

They’d done this at least ten times already, both of them reciting the plan as if it required repeating. It didn’t. They both knew it by heart. They understood that soon, Sophie should receive a phone call from Arnette with her offer, and she’d know when they would expect her to start. She’d arrange to be here for Monica’s proposal, which would happen later this week, and Bryce would get the work done on her aunt’s house that could no longer wait, given the electrical issues the contractor had found upon his initial visit for the quote. Bryce had spent an hour telling Sophie about that just that morning because neither of them could talk about anything that actually mattered. It was too hard to bring up the fact that they were parting soon, so instead, Bryce had explained the parts of the work that she couldn’t do on her own because she didn’t want to get hurt or needed an expert for. The electrician she’d had inspect the house found some issues that would need to be repaired for either the next tenant or the person who bought the place from her aunt. Bryce had shared that she’d booked the appointment before booking her trip to see Sophie, and while she wished they could’ve had a few extra days together, the work really needed to get done.

Sophie had listened to her talk, but she wasn’t sure she retained much of anything. She’d been watching Bryce add the last of her things to her suitcase, and they’d had a difficult decision to make then. Bryce had left her toothbrush in the holder, and before she’d zipped her toiletry bag, she’d asked Sophie if she should keep it there for when she came back. Everything in Sophie had told her to say yes. It made sense. It was practical. Bryce would be back soon and should just leave her toothbrush. But there had been a small part of her that silently begged Bryce to take it with her because seeing it there every night, in that holder, without the woman being there, would be too hard. In the end, Sophie had nodded, and now, there was a toothbrush belonging to her girlfriend in the holder next to her own.

Other than that one item in the bathroom, there was only one more thing in Sophie’s apartment that told her Bryce had even been there. The painting Bryce had bought for her was hanging above Sophie’s desk now. She hadn’t had anything there before, and it had always been fine, but now that the painting was there, she wondered how the wall had ever looked okay while empty to her before because that painting clearly belonged there. She’d stared at it that morning while Bryce wheeled her bag out of the bedroom. Sophie knew there were other things that would now remind her of Bryce. She’d never look at her bed or shower the same way again, but there were also the spicy chips Bryce loved sitting on her counter, with a chip clip holding them closed. There was also the beer Bryce had bought for them that Sophie wouldn’t have bought for herself, but those were food items that would either soon be gone or that anyone could mistake for being Sophie’s.

She wanted more of Bryce in her apartment. She wanted to have Bryce’s clothes in the laundry mixed with her own, Bryce’s shampoo and conditioner in the shower, butting up against the grapefruit kind she used and likely always would now. She wanted it all, and she didn’t want to have to wait for it because it already felt like she had. She’d waited a year. She’d watched days, weeks, and months go by on her calendar, thinking about this woman she’d met and wishing people could hold their alcohol better and not get violent. That fight had pulled Bryce away from her the first time, and now, she was being pulled away again by distance.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Bryce said.

Sophie wondered why she had said it, but then Bryce’s thumbs were on her cheeks, wiping away tears that Sophie didn’t know had fallen.

“Sorry,” she replied with a chuckle. “I know we’ll see each other soon.”

“It’s okay,” Bryce said. “This is hard.”

“It’s just that… You get to go home, and it’ll be, like, normal for you, but I have to drive home and have all the memories of us there. It’s going to be hard. There’s a painting right above my desk now, and I’ll be working from home, Bry.”

“I know,” Bryce replied, pulling Sophie’s lips to hers. “But the memories are good ones, Soph. Just remember that, okay? Remember that they’re good memories, and I’ll be back there soon to make more of them with you.”

“Yeah,” she said unconvincingly.

“I think we should say goodbye here, after all.”

“No,” Sophie objected and pulled back. “Let’s go inside. I want to hug you for hours before you go through security.”

“I’d miss my flight, then,” Bryce said.

“That’s sort of my plan,” she replied with a laugh that she didn’t really feel.

Bryce didn’t argue. She just got out of the car, and when Sophie popped the trunk, she pulled out her bag and backpack. Then, Sophie was right there, standing next to her, and Bryce held out her hand for her to take how she’d done so many times now. As Bryce pulled her bag with her free hand, Sophie leaned into her strong body, needing to feel it pressed against her as if to let her know that Bryce was still here; she wasn’t really leaving. The walk to the sliding glass doors was all too short, and when Bryce pulled them over to where the security line was forming, Sophie’s heart started pounding loudly and uncomfortably in her chest.

Having dropped her backpack into a chair against the wall and pushed her roller bag in front of it, Bryce turned to her. Her hands went to Sophie’s hips, but Sophie was staring at her own feet, unable to meet Bryce’s stare.

“Babe, will you look at me, please?”

“If I do, you’ll say goodbye.”

“I’m saying I’ll see you later. It’s different. And I need to see your eyes.”

Sophie swallowed and looked up, knowing there were tears in her eyes.

“I’m being a sap,” she said, wiping her eyes.

“No, you’re being you, and I…” Bryce seemed to hesitate. “Well, I love you. I wasn’t going to say that yet because it hasn’t been all that long, but it’s how I feel, and I wanted you to know. I wanted to tell you that in person. I’m in love with you, Sophie Santiago. I think I’ve been since that night, but now, I know you. I know who you are; what you like and what you hate; that you’re a clean person but not so clean that if I leave dirty clothes on the floor, you won’t get mad at me.” Bryce chuckled. “I know you like it when I hold you and just really hold you because it makes you feel safe and like I’m never going to let you go. And I won’t. Soph. I won’t let you go, okay? I love you. Long-distance is going to suck, but it’s short-term distance because I can’t ever be away from you for long now that I know that I was right all along: you’re the one for me.”

Sophie’s eyes lit up. Bryce had just told her she loved her.

“I love you, too,” she said with a smile. “I was going to wait to tell you.”

“We shouldn’t ever wait. We’ve waited too long already,” Bryce said, leaning in and pressing her forehead to Sophie’s. “I love you. I will see you soon. This is only the beginning, not the end for us. Whenever you’re sad, you remember that, okay?”

“And what will you remember when you ’re sad?”

“Everything,” Bryce said on a breath.

Sophie kissed her then, and they stood there as the airport announcer continually interrupted the space with flight boarding announcements, lost and found mentions, and the TSA warning about items sitting around the airport that didn’t have anyone near them. Sophie didn’t really hear any of that, though, because she was kissing the woman she loved, and that woman loved her back.

When they finally broke apart, Sophie watched Bryce turn and walk to the TSA agent who was guarding the security line. She showed him the boarding pass on her phone that indicated she was flying first class and joined the priority line, which was short. Soon, Bryce was showing her ID and boarding pass again and waiting for her turn to put her stuff into gray tubs, all while Sophie watched.

Sophie wiped the tears from her eyes when Bryce disappeared beyond glass and metal detectors and crowds of people on the other side of the barrier. She didn’t allow herself to break down because they really would be seeing one another soon, so she needed to keep herself together. Still, she sat there, in the chair Bryce had just used for her backpack, for another thirty minutes or so, as if Bryce would come back through that same barrier and tell her that her flight was canceled and there were no more headed her way, so they’d have another day together. When that hadn’t happened, she stared at the screen, saw that Bryce’s flight was now boarding, and she stood. It was time for her to go.

“Hello?” she said into her phone when she got to her car.

“Sophie? Hi. This is Rhonda, the recruiter from Arnette Assets.”

Sophie pulled herself together because this was the call. But why did it have to come right after she had dropped her girlfriend off at the airport?

“Hello. How are you?” she asked as she wiped her eyes, like Rhonda could somehow see her.

“I’m great. Thanks for asking. How are you doing today?”

“I’m good,” Sophie lied.

“Great. Well, I’m calling because I wanted to let you know that we loved you, and we want to give you an offer for the role.”

“Really? That’s great,” she said because she didn’t know if the recruiter had any idea that Monica had already revealed the news.

“Yes. Do you have a minute now? I can run you through everything. And if you accept, I can send you the offer in writing.”

“I have time now, yes,” she replied.

And she did have time. She had nothing but time now that Bryce was on a plane. She had all the time in the world to listen to this offer because she had no job right now, and her girlfriend would soon be in another city.