"I would," she said. "I really would. If I died first, I mean."
"That's grim, isn't it?" I asked.
'I'll haunt you..." she sang, her voice lilting pleasantly. "I'll haunt you when I'm gone... you'll never love again..." Her singing turned to laughter at this last part.
(more) I laughed with her.
"'I'll never love again'?"
"It was meant to be sweet! Maybe that was a little dark, hmm? The rest of it is true, though: I promise to haunt you." She leaned across the couch and kissed me on my cheek. "Would you haunt me?"
I shrugged just to tease her. "Oh I don't know, maybe. I'd haunt you in the shower, definitely."
"Perv." She went back to her book and started scrolling on my phone again. I knew she had wanted a more romantic answer, but the whole conversation made me feel strange. Haunting? Forever?
***
But nothing lasts forever, and neither did we. We broke up, we split possessions, I moved out. I had a small apartment, which was fine because I also had half as many things to furnish it with. Nothing haunting me there but empty space.
The city was a different matter. It should have been big enough, but we had gone everywhere. Every restaurant and every park and every cafe and every bus stop- everywhere I went, I could only think of being there before, with her.
I'll be damned. She was right.(less)
