The Years Between Us Novels & Stories

Explained why my grandparents liked him, he was a prominent business man and shared the same status they did in society. They seemed so perfect together, I reckoned they were a couple everyone admired during their days, a power couple even, both intelligent and coming from wealthy families. With what I had observed they must have been happy together and that begged the question as to why they had split from one another. “For how long did you two da-” I paused and rephrased my sentence before continuing. “I mean for how long were you together, as a couple.” “8 years.” George answered.

"I've made arrangements for our honeymoon to also be in London." My brows creased. "Is that really necessary?" "If you want this to be believable, yes. We'll stay for three days or less in one of the resorts." Not like I had much of a choice. "Alright." He leaned back into his seat and crossed a leg over the other. "I think it's important we know the basics of our families. You should start by telling me about yours." I looked up at him. "There's nothing much to them. I haven't seen my father in years, my mother single-handedly raised me and my brother helped. We're a close-knit family and get by with the little we have. That's all."

He obeyed and leaned against my leg as Ethan swallowed hard. “How old is he?” he asked, his voice rougher than before, I felt every muscle in my body tense. “Why does that matter?” I asked but his eyes never left Leo’s face. “Please.” I looked at him and made my expression unreadable. “Three,” I said as his facial expression changed immediately, three years, the same length of time since our divorce. The silence between us stretched thickly and suffocated. “Ava…” His voice cracked slightly. “Is he…” he said. “No,” I said immediately, though the word came out sharper than I intended, I didn’t wait for him to further ask questions.

I'm pretty sure the universe hates me. --- Dinner, at least, was a welcomed distraction. Jenna and Matt were ridiculously cute together—joking, laughing, stealing kisses like teenagers. I smiled through it all, even laughed when Matt dropped the mashed potatoes on his shirt. As much as I enjoyed watching them, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d ever have that. The Real Love. The kind that looked messy and mundane but felt like home. I wasn't sure my parents had that and I didn't want to end up like them.

She was still the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Brown hair pulled back messy, tan scales catching the light, the same sharp jaw and steady eyes he remembered from eight years ago. Before the exile. Before the cells. She was everything Bale needed and everything he couldn’t have. Time hadn’t changed her. It had only made the ache worse. And right there, across the sand, something clicked. A pull. Old, quiet, undeniable. Like a rope he’d tried to cut but never could. They still had feelings for each other.

Time has a funny way of slipping through your fingers when you are truly happy. It felt like only yesterday that we were celebrating our renewal of vows, surrounded by love and the promise of a bright future. And yet, five years had flown by in the blink of an eye. Five years of peace, five years of growth, and five years of building something that would outlast us all.

"Did you two have a fight on your honeymoon? You haven't said two words to each other since you walked in." A few sophomores chuckled nervously, but Julian glared at him. "Shut up, Mike. Run the set." "I'm just asking a question!" Mike laughed, spinning the ball on his index finger. "You spend days locked in a gym together at five in the morning, and suddenly you're standing on opposite sides of the room like a divorced couple. I'm just wondering why you bothered showing up at four today. You're both riding the bench tomorrow night anyway. What's the point?"

When I heard his confession about what happened five years ago, the tears came before I could stop them. They spilled down my cheeks in a steady stream. I couldn’t believe we had lost five whole years because of one terrible misunderstanding. All that time apart, all the nights I had spent wondering, all the days I had tried to forget him — and it had been a mistake. Maybe we needed those years to grow. Maybe we both had to become different people before we could find our way back to each other. Still, the sadness of everything we had lost sat heavy and sharp in my chest.