Member-only story
The Muse I Left Behind
Beyond Yonder — No1 (Micro)
He said he was going to travel the world without me.
I smiled and told him to go enjoy himself for both our sakes.
He frowned at me as if he couldn’t quite figure me out.
Then, that night as I packed away my things in a small suitcase, he came into the bedroom and threw his passport, a map, and a handful of polaroids down onto the bed. I looked up and saw tears in his eyes.
“Why are you doing this to us?” he asked. “Didn’t I try to give you everything? Haven’t I done anything I could?”
I sighed and walked around the edge of the bed to draw him into my arms. The love wasn’t gone — of course it wasn’t — but I knew my future and his weren’t intertwined. When I closed my eyes, I saw him with a beautiful woman who wasn’t afraid of her body, who wore all the right things, who would be adventurous in all the ways he liked.
That woman — she wasn’t me.
Maybe in another world, a kinder one, I could have grown into that woman. I could have cut and dyed my hair. I could have worn the low-cut clothing that would have drawn eyes to me like moths to flames. I could have worn the eyelash extensions, puckered my lips for every perfect shade of lipstick, and modeled for every camera angle.
