To the Person Who Has My Heart

Today, you told me you never had romantic feelings of any kind. Those words knocked the breath out of me. My chest squeezed tight and I had to swallow multiple times to keep tears from spilling.

But do you remember when we walked through downtown so late it was practically morning? You offered your arm to me like a gentleman, and I took it. We walked aimlessly for hours. As the sun rose, we confided in each other about what insecurities shredded our souls and what embarrassing dreams made life worth living: things no common acquaintance or coworker shares with one another.

Today, you told me I didn’t add anything to your life. 

But do you recall when you had to write a ten-page paper about that absurd foreign film for your Humanities class? I watched the film with you multiple times until we understood it and typed the whole thing as you dictated it to me. 

Today, you told me our “friendship” exhausted you. 

But what about the first time we made love? We stayed up all night, giving in to the attraction we had had for years. The euphoria extinguished any fatigue. We both stared in awe at the other after the passionate night that you only read about in romance novels. 

Today, you told me you never depended on me like I depended on you. 

Did I imagine those thousands of text messages and hundreds of phone calls you initiated? The text messages that began with a question we both knew you already had the answer to? The phone calls where you desperately conveyed how much you wanted to talk to me and hear my voice? 

Today, you told me you never loved me. 

I guess that’s my mistake. 

 Sincerely,

Me

-Taryn Hinderland

Taryn Hinderland is a writer living in Los Angeles. She went to the University of Oklahoma to pursue a film degree and found a love of writing. Her obsession with Star Wars has resulted in many Sci-Fi romance stories that bring her immense joy and a fascination with space travel.