It’s over.
Her hair blew wildly around her head. She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing she hadn’t had to say what she just did.
He put his hand on her cheek, but she shook her head.
“We can make it work. Don’t do this. Please.” He tried to smile, but his lips quavered, faltered.
Tears streamed down her face, as she held onto his arm. She shook her head faster. He wiped away her tears quickly as if they were gone, this wouldn’t be happening.
“I love you.”
“So what?” she snapped, pushing his hands away. “It’s not like love is some magical thing that will make everything work out! When you stop getting gigs, and we can’t pay the bills, what am I supposed to do? Tell the electric company that we’re in love? What about when you go on tour? I’ll be all alone; oh, but I’ll be in love, so I'll be fine. What if I’m pregnant and you have groupies hanging all over you? Are you gonna tell them you’re in love with a big balloon back home?” She shook her head again. “It’s over. We don’t have a future.”
“I would never cheat on you, you know that.” He held on to her arms, turning her towards him. “Listen to me, I’ll never love someone as much as I love you. I swear.”
“We won’t work. Why don’t you understand? It doesn’t matter!” she shrieked, her voice cracking.
His eyes were brimming over with tears, but he wouldn’t let go of her arms, or the hope that maybe he could fix this.
“You can come with me on tour! Then you wouldn’t have to worry about anything. And then we wouldn’t have to be apart.”
“I can’t. I have a life and career to work on. I can’t just follow you around for the rest of our lives. What kind of life is that?”
“The only one where we could be together,” he whispered, leaning his head down so their foreheads touched. “Don’t do this to me. I need you.” They wrapped their arms around each other, tears falling so hard, that they couldn’t even tell whose was whose anymore, like their own private rain cloud above them was really the one crying.
“Goodbye,” she whispered in his ear, kissed his cheek, and walked away.
* * *
Love isn’t special
Love isn’t magic
It won’t feed the hungry
It won’t cure the sick
Love won’t save the world
Love can’t fight crime
It can’t heal the hurt
No, baby, not this time
And love won’t right the wrongs
Or sing our songs
Love won’t stop a war
So really, what’s it for?
Breaking hearts
And brand new starts
Where it just happens again
Love isn’t magic
It can’t do any of that stuff
But if it had kept you with me
It would have been magic enough.
