The car was quiet. She in her thoughts and he in his, this wasn't the first time she had dropped him off at the airport and said good-bye, and it wouldn't be the last. Every time he left, he took a piece of her heart with him. She sometimes wondered how much longer they were going to last. The long distance was killing her, and it was obvious that it was bothering him also. She had to wonder how she'd gotten here. For as long as she could remember, she'd said that she would never get into a long distance relationship, it was too much work, and it required too much time. Time she didn't have. But he'd been hard to resist when she'd met him and fell for him, and even still, she found it hard to walk away from a relationship that could potentially end due to the strain of living hundreds of miles away from each other.
She brought the car to a slow stop. They'd finally reached the busy airport. Slowly, she turned in her seat with tears of sadness and love in her eyes. How was she supposed to say bye again?
Her mouth opened, and a quiet sob escaped rather than what she really wanted to say, which was, stay, and build a life with me here. But his life was on the East and hers on the West, and at the moment, it was impossible to merge the two.
He reached out and stroked her soft cheek smiling that smile that first drew her to him. His eyes said everything his mouth couldn't seem to, "I'll miss you" they said. She could only close her eyes and lean into his hand, trying like hell to block out the pain in her chest that refused to ease up.
It was time. The two quietly got out of the car and met at her trunk where he lifted his bag out and sat it on the curb. It was smaller than it had been the last time. This trip was shorter than the rest. She was terrified to think about what this could possibly mean. He pulled her stiff body against his and lowered his head to place a sweet kiss on her quivering lips before hugging her as if he didn't want to let her go. She held on to him just as tight, knowing that if one of them didn't make a sacrifice, this could be, might be, probably would be, their last time.