Page 107 of Stay With Me

Thatwas the truth.

“I don’t know how I’ll be able to forgive myself for these things, but I’m hoping you can somehow find it in your heart to forgive me.”

He paused to draw in his breath deeply.

“I know I talk about the dream I had a lot, and I’m sure you’re sick of hearing about it, but honestly it wasn’t a normal dream. It felt like it was God or the universe or something telling me I had to change or I’d risk losing the greatest thing I never imagined having—which is you. I saw the potential in us and it was soamazing.We had the most beautiful life together. We dealt with so many hardships, but we never gave up on each other. I always believed I wanted something easy when it came to life and relationships, which is why I never got involved with anyone beyond a physical level. But now I know how important the hard times are because they only make the good times that much more amazing. Seeing all of that and then surviving that fall makes me feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life. I’m hoping that you can give me that chance too. I want to be different. Iamdifferent now, and I want to start over with you. Because, the truth is, I love you, Sammie. It took that fall and that dream for me to realize I was falling in love with you, but you being here over these past few weeks has made me fall completely in love with you. I’ve never loved anyone like this before and I know that I’m going to love you like this for the rest of my life.”

Maybe he should be writing this down.

Or better yet.

He picked up the phone.

“Hey there!” Sammie answered. “You’re up early. How are you feeling?”

“Uh fine,” he stammered. “I didn’t sleep well.”

“Oh no,” she sympathized. “Are you okay?”

“I need to … well, I mean, do you have a minute? I know you’re at work.”

“Of course.”

He took a deep breath. “Sammie, I uh … you know that dream I keep talking about?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I feel like … I mean, I’ve been thinking about it a lot.” He hesitated. “I think, uh. That is to say, I feel like it was kind of, like trying to tell me something. About myself. And about you and like … uh.”

“What do you think it was telling you?”

“Just that I think I wasn’t a good person.”

“What do you mean? I think you’re a great person.”

“Well, I think it was trying to tell me that I needed to be different. Like, my priorities in life have been kind of skewed.”

He could feel himself blatantly derailing.

“You mean because you’re a self-admitted workaholic?”

“Yeah.” He winced.

“Well, you’re getting a nice long break now,” she offered. “That’s a start.”

“It is a start,” he agreed, weighing whether or not to continue trying to have the conversation over the phone.

“Sammie, I need you to know that you’re special to me. You’re more important to me than I think you realize, and I don’t … I don’t want to say anything that’s, I don’t know, too much for right now. But I want … I mean, Ineedyou to know that you mean a lot to me, in case something were to happen-”

“What do you mean? Nothing’s going to happen,” she assured him with a concerned tone.

“Well, I mean anything can happen. I never expected to fall off a cliff.”

He slapped his palm over his forehead.

Completely derailed.

“You’re not going to fall off a cliff again, and nothing bad is going to happen, Nick,” she promised him.