He wasn’t sure how long he had been there, walking around the dark stale rooms of the old mill reminiscing about the past. It must have been hours, because it was getting dark when he heard her.

“Mel Archer, you come out of there this instant! I don’t know who you thought you were fooling, but it sure as heck wasn’t me. Now come on out of there and take me for a soda!”

“I swear, Jenny, it sure is a shame when a man can’t hide out for awhile and ditch work without a woman snooping around and chasing him down like he is some sort of unruly child!” Mel said smiling, and stepped out into the fresh air as evening closed in on their side of the globe.

He helped Jenny into the car, and they drove into town in silence. They were sitting in the local dinner and were half way through their cokes before she finally spoke. Mel could hear the tears in her voice as she fought to hold them back.

“Mel, I have something I need to tell you, and you feel it, I know you do, but I don’t know where to start.”

There they were; those dreaded words everyone hates to hear. He had been in love with Jenny it seemed his whole life, and she was about to do a hatchet job on his heart. It was breaking her heart as well, and he knew he must say something, stop her from hurting.

“It’s alright, Jenny, please don’t cry. I know your feelings for me have changed. I have sensed it for a while now. The truth is that sometimes distance changes people; they see things different from the other person. I won’t hold you to the promises we made before you left. It wouldn’t be fair to you, or to me,” Mel said reaching across the table taking her small hand in his.

Jenny and Mel spent the evening talking about the past and shared a few good laughs. He told her about his promotion at work, and she told him about the charming guy she met at college. It was obvious to Mel that some guy named Andrew Morris captured his Jenny’s’ heart, and she was head over heels in love him. Sitting there continuing to listen and pretending that he was happy for her was the hardest thing he had ever done.

Mel could feel his heart breaking into a thousand pieces. He wanted to do nothing more than crawl away and nurse his wounds. However, there would be plenty of time for that after he left Jenny standing on her porch waving as he backed out their drive.

He was not about to let Jenny see the tears fall. Still he felt like a lovesick fool, because the moment he picked her up at the airport, the tears stood in his eyes like a beacon. In fact, they had been shouting at her ever since, but they were shouts she never heard or seemed to see.

In the days that followed, Mel spent as little time with Jenny as possible. Her parents and his mom didn’t understand, and Jenny and Mel were back to keeping secrets from them once again. The truth was they were dead set on Jenny and Mel marrying just as much as they had been. However, Jenny and Mel didn’t want to do anything to spoil their holiday season, so they remained silent.

Mel’s dad was the only one that had enough insight to see that his son was yearning to hold onto Jenny, but he quietly saw the truth and kept it to himself through the holidays.

“Sara, you shouldn’t question Mel too much, but the truth is, the adventures of Mel and Jenny are coming to an end. I was afraid that this would happen; there was too much time and distance between them. I hate to say it, but I think Jenny met someone new.

I see the same hurt in Mel that I saw every time I looked in the mirror when I thought I was going to lose you that summer. I only pray that things work out for him, and he can rise above the pain.”

           Mel overheard his dad and mom talking the night he came in from taking Jenny to catch her flight back to California. He came into the house so quietly they never heard him, but at the mention of her name, he stopped in the hall and listen. Mel loved and respected his parents, but at that very moment, everything he felt just bubbled over and he burst into tears. He never forgot the night his parents held their full-grown son, while he cried like a baby and fell asleep in their loving arms.