The Road Back to Your Heart

Gabi didn’t know why she was doing this, why she had gotten Eric’s address from Mama Staal and driven herself over to his house. She had inputted the address into her GPS and headed over there and now had been outside his house for five minutes trying to gather up the courage to walk up and knock on the door. Gabi sighed and unbuckled her seat belt and walked up the path to his front door. Before she could knock the door swung open and Eric stood there in his boxers.

“Mom called,” Eric said with a small shrug. “Why are you here Gabi?”

Gabi ran her fingers through her hair, “I wanted to talk. I know you said I don’t have to explain anything but I want to. I don’t want this to get out of hand, even though you punching him probably was a bit out of hand.”

“You’re rambling,” He said with a small smile. “Do I make you nervous, Gabs?”

She shook her head, “No, this situation makes me nervous. Can I please come in Eric?”

“Sure,” Eric stepped aside in let her in. “You have nothing to worry about. I am going to stay away from him.”

Gabi sighed, “That’s not the problem. A little birdie hinted that you had met him before. Is that true?”

“Do you want some tea?” He asked heading into the kitchen. “This is going to be a long talk.”

She nodded and sat down at the table, “Sure. Eric, what is going on? How did you meet him?”

“I came to Yale. The first time was the summer after we broke up, I was looking for you and he told me that you might be at Hewitt Quad. I went over there and I was about to go up to you when he showed up and talked to you, after telling me he didn’t know who you were,” Eric said as he sat down across from her.

Gabi sighed, “We were just friends then though. Nothing was going on.”

“That was only the first time I came,” He said running his fingers through his golden locks. “I came the following summer. Right after my season ended in Lowell. I was watching you when Nathan came up to me. I was trying to get the courage to come up to you. He pretty much told me I was wasting my time because you had moved on with him. I didn’t believe him. He wasn’t anything like me; I didn’t think he was your type. So he went over to you to prove his point and I watched you with him. As much as I didn’t like it, you seemed happy and I didn’t want to be the reason you weren’t happy again. I loved you enough to let you go. My brothers told me I was an idiot that I should have walked up to the two of you and broke it up but I saw you smile and laugh and I couldn’t do that to you as much as it hurt me to walk away that day, I knew that I had been the cause of too much pain in your life already and I wasn’t adding anymore to it.”

Gabi didn’t know how to respond to that and thankfully the tea pot whistled and Eric got up and made the tea.

She took a deep breath, “Eric, I wasn’t happy. I was just barely living. I got good at pretending to be happy. I was trying to make a life without you work and what I learned was that a life without you isn’t a life I want to live.”

“Elle,” Eric started trying to think of the words to say. “I knew the moment the words came out of my mouth I had made a mistake but you know my brothers and me, we are too stubborn to admit that we make mistakes. Elle, I never stopped loving you but we can’t just pick up and start where we left off, too much has changed. I am a different person. I have more responsibilities, people I have to answer to and you, you have grown. As much as I want to start where we left off we can’t.”

Gabi stood up, “This was a mistake, and I shouldn’t have come here.” She grabs her jacket and heads to the door only to be stopped by Eric.

“No,” He said holding onto her arm. “I wasn’t saying that I don’t want you back. I was saying we needed to start over. Clean the slate but you were right, we need to wait until after the finals. I need to focus on my job but we can start by getting to know each other again. Friends and then at the end of the summer make the decision if we want to start over and try and make a relationship work. I want you in my life Elle, any way that I can have you.”
She smiled and held out her hand, “Friends?”

“Friends,” Eric said with a smile as he shook her hand.

Gabi sat back down and over a cup of tea, the two of them talked about their lives, catching each other up on the three years that they spent apart. Gabi told him about Yale and how even though she chose to stay over the summers and take classes to graduate early, she missed Thunder Bay and was looking forward to the journey home after the finals. She even told him about being at Marc’s draft, and how she watched the family from the crowd and how she saw Tanya there. Eric listened, giving her time to tell him about her life up until the moment they saw each other again and once she was done, he smiled and they went their separate ways until dinner. Gabi, back to the hotel to try and get it through Nathan’s head that she didn’t want to be with him and Eric upstairs to finish the nap that he had planned on taking until Gabi showed up. Neither one knowing what the future would bring, but for that moment happy to have put the past behind them and start anew.

Notes