“Dave, I have something to say to you.”

“What is it, babe?”

“You know you’re my butterfly,” she said.

“Yeah…”

“Well, my butterfly,” she opened her notebook where she kept her best thoughts, poems, and quotes. Finding the line marked by a bright yellow Post-It, she read, ”...like a butterfly. You must let it go. If it comes back to you, it is truly yours.”

“What? Haley, I don’t understand…”

“I love you, Dave. More than anyone, I do. That’s why I have to let you go.”

“I love you, too, Hale. But I don’t want to let you go!”

“You must. I must. This, what we have…it isn’t healthy. Hiding everything all the time. I can’t take it. We have to let go. If life heads us toward eachother again, at a better time, that’d be great. But, now, this isn’t right.”

It hurt her to turn and walk away. Every step was excruciating.

“Haley! I don’t understand!” She could hear the quaver in his voice.

She ran.

When she sat down, she wrote a note, tears streaming down.