Months have gone by where Vince has ignored emails, calls, and even the letters that were forwarded to his new house. The scenery of the city had grown on him in tremendously wrong ways since Emma left. There had been many overnights, along with month-long flings, but nothing to take the memories of her green eyes gazing back at his from across the room away. Seasons can go by while love still lingers on in whatever form it was remembered and construed in our minds versus the actuality of how it was all along. Vince moved to Montana after 3 months. He rescued a puppy and named him Bitters because that’s the best pairing for Scotch. He has also taken a break from writing, he’s working at a media company and still doing photography on the side, but he took down his blog and grew tired of staring at blank pages. 

     All while Emma continued to try to reach Vince, she stayed away from the contract with Cleo. She has a new love for hikes with Scotch weekly and enjoys the coastline of Rhode Island more than the city lights and broken buildings. She’s still writing only this time out of contract, which she has found to be better than what it was before. She’s also found love, at least she thought. Every rocky moment leads to wondering why the puzzle pieces fit so well with Vince, and the picture it made wasn’t right. This leads her to constantly wonder how two artists agree on the same picture when, deep down, they have different meanings. Emma always valued that part of art where the original creator can have an idea or meaning, but every other person who looks at it can come up with their own meaning she just couldn’t figure out how to add love into that equation. 

…

“Dear readers, 

I abruptly discontinued this page without any warning or reasoning. I do apologize for not responding to anyone’s questions or worries. I didn’t notice how many people paid attention and read these posts. This post is important for many reasons, and there’s one specific reader I hope it finds as the spark to most of my work I have not been in contact with for months.

                     Sincerely, Vincen”

For Emma,

This isn’t a letter to bring us back by any means. Although I saw your book published, and to see the project you had always been working on in the background is amazing. Reading your work and thinking about how effortlessly the words coming off the page sound but knowing how hard it is to press the pencil to the page when our words don’t want to leave our minds is riveting. I had the opportunity to see many different lights of this work in many different places and plans made to think the words would come out. The truth is, since I read your work, the words are trickling out of my mind the way the leaves are trickling down from the trees after they change colors on the branches. I’m walking into the stores to find your favorite seasonal candles are now back. Somehow, I ended up with the box of our seasonal decorations, and sometimes it feels like you’re still here. I spent months pushing anything connected to any thought of us away, and now it’s time to give in. These ideas and thoughts are demanding to be felt, and that is what I must do. Congratulations, Emma; your story is beautiful on its own. I hope this entices my readers enough to give it a read as well.

     Vince submits the post with no idea of what the outcome might be. When he finally decided to call Emma back, her phone had been disconnected. In hopes that she still follows him, she should get a notification of the post. While Vince is outside finishing up yard work, he misses three calls from an unknown number. He goes inside to shower and get ready because he is meeting with a couple to take their engagement photos. They’re taking the photos at a family farm nearby, and of course, halfway through the photo shoot, he gets another call. 

“Hey Vince,” Emma quietly says. 

“Emma? Is it you?” Vince says as he’s turning away from the couple. 

Vince then turns back towards the couple to say.

“Sorry, this will be a few minutes, I have to take this call.”
As he starts walking away from the couple, he hears.

“You can call me back when you have time, Vincen, I have a lot to talk to you about, if that’s okay? This is my new number; I’ll be around today.” 

Vince looks at the time and then says, 
“Of course, I’ll give you a call tonight.”

As Vince walks back over to the couple, he can’t help but smile while he wonders where Emma is these days. About thirty minutes later, he’s back in his car on his way home. After he gets home, he lets Bitters out, and then he decides to call Emma back. The phone rings for a while.

“Hey, I didn’t think you would actually call,” Emma says as soon as she answers. 
Vince looks around before saying.
“I could understand why that idea would be in your mind, I am sorry, I didn’t think I would ever talk to you again, but I finally opened the letters, which I’m also sorry about.”

As Emma’s shaking her head,
“Vince, you don’t have to apologize. Maybe I shouldn’t have just left, or maybe I should have. Tell me about your life now. Is everything okay?” 

“My life? First, I have to say congratulations to you. You published on your own, and that’s amazing. It’s what you always said you would do.” Vince looks over at her book on his counter.

Emma laughs, “You never liked talking about yourself. I also thought you would’ve said something about me using the first half that you edited before I left New York for the first time. Are you still in New York?”  She asks as she looks over at the photo she kept of them. 
“No, actually, are you?” Bitters is now barking at something outside. Emma looks over at Scotch. 
“No, we’re in Rhode Island now. Do you have a new dog? Are you seeing someone new?” Emma eagerly says.
“Speaking of dogs, thank you for putting pictures of Scotch in your letters. I did rescue a pup. Her name is Bitters. What brought you to Rhode Island? Vince says as he stares out the window. 

“Bitters is the perfect pair for Scotch, is what you always said. It’s just where I went after leaving our apartment, Vince.” 

     Emma shakes her head, 

“Vince, I want more than this catch-up phone call. I want us to pick out our pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns, and I want our matching ugly sweaters for Thanksgiving again. I want to try to sneak, putting out each other’s Christmas stockings and then finding each other. I want-“ 

Vince cuts her off, 

“We’re in two entirely different places now, Emma. This can’t be an overnight shift. This has to start from a new beginning, not just a new chapter, a new book Emma-“ 

Suddenly, Vince doesn’t hear anything from the other side of the call. Come to find out, his phone died. The timing is impeccable with these two. 

To Be Continued…