The town was bustling, and I took my time as I walked back to the store, running through what I’d say to Maya. I couldn’t decide if I should use shock and surprise as a method of getting what I needed, or show her a recent photograph of Jack and demand she tell me everything, minus the bull. Maybe I should take a gentler approach, explain my situation in more detail and hope for empathy, or perhaps I’d have to gauge her reaction and take it from there.

I was about forty feet from the store, and still undecided, when the front door opened. I recognized Maya from her Facebook profile immediately. Her dark hair was cut in a shorter, choppy chin-length bob, and it made her eyes seem even bigger. She was tall, had a good couple of inches on me, and the heels of her black leather lace-up boots were a direct contrast to my canvas flats, making her tower over me even more. She was beautiful, edgy, the kind of person who didn’t take any crap from anyone, someone my parents would’ve glanced at and labeled trouble. I was about to call out her name, but my heart almost stopped when another person walked out behind her. A man.

Jack.

They turned in the opposite direction, and I wanted to go after them, but my legs buckled and I stumbled, losing my balance, landing on my hands and knees, the asphalt piercing my skin. Was it really him? Were my mind and the lack of sleep playing tricks on me? My vision seemed to blur and when a passerby stopped to ask if I was okay, I told them I was fine and pushed myself up. “Jack!” I cried, but my voice came out so strained, I barely made a sound. “Jack!”

I couldn’t take my eyes off him, but he didn’t turn around, didn’t notice or hear me as he continued down the street alongside Maya. I watched, hopeless and pathetic, as he kept walking away. Away from me. I went after them, ignored the stinging in my palms and knees as I ran across the road, narrowly avoiding two cars before finally catching up to them. I reached for his arm. “Jack.”

In the time it took him to turn around I wondered if I’d gone insane, somehow become delusional. I imagined the embarrassment of being mistaken, grabbing hold of Maya’s boyfriend or husband. Perhaps my desperation had projected what I’d wanted to see, what I’d needed to see, but the split second passed, and he turned around.

It was him.

Jack. My Jack.