Waiting for Hope

Hold on Loosely

Hold on Loosely - .38 special

Their last week together had come and gone. Before either of them knew it, Hope's last day in Morro had arrived. Ethan had made every moment with her that week his top priority, knowing that she would be four hours away sooner than later. He dreaded it, but knew it was inevitable.

She was leaving on a Sunday, so Ethan made sure to arrange his schedule at work to have Saturday off and not go in to work until Sunday evening. He drove north to Morro early Saturday and spent the entire day with Hope, just relaxing and having fun.

Ethan was determined to keep things light so Hope wouldn't feel strained by her upcoming departure. He felt melancholy enough and didn't know if he would have the strength to comfort her. Their plans were all about being together as much as possible.

When he arrived, he set his fun-day-with-Hope plan into motion. Their first stop was a quaint coffee shop in the town, set away from the waterfront. They sat together, sipping their drinks and playing card games. The weather was the usual cold and overcast Morro Bay experience which made coffee that much better.

Once they had had their fill of the little café, they took a stroll hand in hand through the streets of the little downtown. Amid family owned restaurants and antique shops were a few hidden gems as well. Hope found a beautiful hand-carved wooden box to keep her little stones in when she wasn't carrying them. She also found some jewelry made with the little moonstones that were found on beaches just north of Morro.

The afternoon was spent walking north beach finding a few sand dollars and shells to add to her collection that she kept in her room back home. Ethan laughed when she mentioned all of the trinkets, ticket stubs and shells she had collected on her camping trips over the years. But he held her close when she told him how much more they meant to her now that he was in her life. She told him that each shell and trinket made her think of him, of all of those years that she was so special to him without her even knowing.

It was more true than she knew. After that first moment he saw her his life had changed.

"Do you want to know something, Hope?"

"What's that?'

"Seeing you changed my life." Ethan stated simply.

"What do you mean?"

"Because I saw you when I was 15, and couldn't get you out of my head, I studied relentlessly. I wanted to keep my mind off of you in a constructive way, so I decided to take school extra seriously. I'm not sure anyone, other than my mom, knows that it's because of you that I'm going into engineering."

Hope just looked at him with her mouth open, eyes wide.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, absolutely. Otherwise, I might have been a fisherman like Will's and my dads. I like fishing, don't get me wrong, but I don't think I would have been happy doing that for a living. So thank you."

Hope smiled and gave him a warm embrace. They continued walking on the beach for a while, just enjoying the view and the company.

After a bit, Hope paused and turned to him, "Now, can I tell you something?"

"Sure."

"Well, I've thought about this a lot over the last couple of weeks, about you and me all of those years. I know it was hard on you, but I'm actually glad that things didn't start happening for us until now. I wasn't ready then, Ethan. And if you had tried any more than you did, I would have just freaked out, run and never looked back. So, thank you for having so much patience."