The music pounded and the

walls throbbed in response.

Smoke filled the room.

The strobe light flashed overhead

distorting faces into

ghostly images.

And then there you were.

Standing in front of me.

Would you like to dance?

Another?

Again?

Into the late night.

That's how it all started.

It didn't take long to fall

deeply

amazingly

passionately

In love.

If I close my eyes

and silence the life around me

I can still hear your voice.

It never changes.

I carried that voice

in my head

for years afterward.

Long after the tears.

of goodbye.

War.

What an ugly word.

What a useless word.

What a heartbreaking word.

Gone for an eternity.

At least that's how it felt.

Then the phone call to

come to the airport for

your return.

And suddenly, there you were.

Standing in front of me once again.

Wounded.

But in one piece.

"I'd know those legs anywhere!"

It was the first thing you said.

The last thing you said was

"I got married."

And everything said between

was meaningless.

The whole world must have

heard my heart shattering

into tiny pieces.

So many pieces.

Let me stay.

I don't want to go back.

Please.

I sent you away,

but as I watched the taxi

grow smaller in the night

I was sorry.

How could I just let you go?

I'd held onto you for so long.

But it wouldn't have been right.

Gone.

Just like that.

And then I cried.

I held onto you long past

that goodbye.

Too long.

A lifetime too long.

I still think of you.

But rarely, now.

There are still songs

I cannot bear to hear.

Burning pictures and letters

couldn't erase the memory.

If only it did.

I want you to know

that I finally loved again.

And laughed again.

But if you look very closely,

you can still see the faintest

tinge of sadness and regret

around the edges of my heart.

Maybe in the next life

you will find me in another

smoke-filled room

Where I'll be waiting for

you to ask me to dance.