Time Apart Novels & Stories

Harold claimed he was busy, so I busied myself setting up our wedding venue alone until midnight. Over the years, he'd refused to marry me 108 times for various reasons—including but not limited to—his career that was just taking flight, not having a fitting suit, and ugly flowers at the venue. This time, it was because of my future assignment to Touden, the capital city. He didn't want to be in a long-distance relationship. And so I gave up on my bright future and organized the wedding by myself, down to the details.

"Are we leaving now? Can we leave now? How long until we leave? Is it time? Is it almost time?" I check my phone. "Twenty-eight minutes." "That's SO LONG. That's like forever. That's like a hundred years. That's—" "It's twenty-eight minutes," Ethan says from the table, not looking up from his waffles. "That's exactly 1,680 seconds. Which is a long time in seconds but not a long time in minutes. It depends on how you measure it." "Well, it FEELS like forever," Alexander insists. "Feelings aren't the same as facts."

“How are my girls?” Julian asks with a sleepy voice, looking at me intently through his cell phone screen. It’s been two weeks since he accompanied my father on a trip to South Korea to establish a partnership with one of the most technological countries in the world. For J’O Tech, this is a unique opportunity. As a director myself, I’m really happy for the opportunity. But as a wife, I miss him... after all, we’re separated by a fourteen-hour time difference and many miles. Even now, it’s late afternoon, and the sun is rising there.

The unfamiliar coldness of the other side of the bed hits me in an instant. That’s when I remember Kingston is away on a team building camp in the middle of the season with the byes and whatever. It’s been 4 days since he left. I miss him. It puts a time difference between us. Not the best thing to have in a relationship. But this could become reality… In 9 months or so. Not that I’ve been the best girlfriend during the past 6 days either.

Thirty Minutes Later: AJ and Cathy latched on quite quickly and drank their fill. They were currently being spoilt by Jack and my dad. Jack is holding AJ and Dad is holding Cathy no one is allowed to take them from either and they would switch every now and then just so that they could spend equal time for both of the twins. I know this because when I tried to hold one of them for a while I was completely blocked.

“Yes, I think it is…” replied the young handsome man. “Then, how about the time in my own world, Elder Brother? I’m now in another dimension, aren’t I? I’ve ever read a book saying there’s a kind of time difference between two different dimensions. Isn’t it? One hour here means…” Sumico intentionally didn’t finish her statement. “Around six hours in your world I think… I don’t know for sure…” replied the young handsome man briefly.

Jack awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. He cleared his throat, and answered “Hello?” There was static on the line and after a long pause, there was a response. He could faintly hear someone through the static, but the voice seemed far away. He repeated a hello, and the voice responded. “Hello? Jack? Can you hear me?” It sounded like Catherine’s voice but she sounded far away still, like maybe she had the phone upside down or was distracted. Maybe it had been a pocket dial? Catherine continued through the breaking and static “Jack. Can’t….talk...long...I’ve been...Jack? Be careful...love you” Before he could respond, the call ended.

We had a twelve hour time difference, and I was taking that into consideration. “I should be, yeah. Tell Andrei I said hi. Call me back my love.” Francine yawned. I had no doubt she'd force herself to stay awake until she heard from me again. I pictured her alone in our bed and my chest seized painfully. Our first year together was spent apart, with me still living in Tobolsk and her in the States. Neither of us were willing to carry on a long distance relationship and it almost broke us up for good. It was painful being away from her now, after I relocated to begin our lives together. The string attached to our hearts pulled and tugged from being stretched so tightly across two oceans. “I w

I also lost weight. The time difference is quite heart-eating, so it's hard for us to communicate. Sometimes we can only communicate once every two days, sometimes twice a day. Once a week only once, because when I'm busy Gerald free Gerald busy, I'm the other way around. Different countries find it very difficult to communicate. The mental burden that was felt was heavy and felt. I can't arrive. If this separation is so torturous, I can't live it.

, Mike said as if his statement would finally come clearer to me. “Okay, hold on, let me explain it properly.” Leah interrupted. “You disappeared here for a long time. A year probably, in the real world. And, the thing is, time runs slower in the other world than in here. It’s like two really different places. To most people here, they would think you were gone. Do you understand now?”