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It was cool as she stood there, hands in the pockets of her well-worn denim jacket. She took in the moment. It was that moment just beyond dusk, the one between the end of a day and the beginning of a seemingly endless night that gave just a hint of peace. It was a release from the pressures of reality, of the day, when the sky still held a soft glow before black but the sun had retreated. The air was fresh, bringing a slight breeze that lightened things in some way, and the sky was clear, allowing the stars to stand out, unmoving in the sky. The moon was bright but didn't quite seem to shine.
Nicole stood and looked at the rundown bar across the railroad tracks, windows glowing with the soft warm light within. She looked above the door at the flickering neon sign "Shorty's" and somehow felt comfort as though it was guiding her in. It was the place that was once their haven, their place of friendship and laughter and family. Perhaps it could be again in some way.
***
As she gazed into the bottom of a glass, one last drink left within it, she wondered if her hope would follow, drained before she could find a way to refill it. In the dark corner, at her table for two, way in the back of the smoke-filled room, she let her mind replay the thoughts that plagued her every moment of every wasted day. Was it a lie to her heart that she’d come back someday? That her world hadn’t fallen apart?
She fought and lost the urge to glance at the door each time it opened, hoping somewhere in the shadows she would appear.
Waverly.
She closed her eyes as the memory of the day they met, at the very bar in front of her, flooded back. Nicole remembered each and every detail of Waverly, from the brown eyes looking back at her just as intently, to the flustered smile that still guided her heart with its light to that day. She let herself recall the feeling of Waverly in her arms, swaying to the song playing only in their hearts, close enough to feel the beat of each other. She remembered Waverly Earp, smiling at her from her front porch. She remembered the fights, the adventures… and she longed for it all.
Nicole closed her eyes and listened as the jukebox played on, drink by drink, the words of each sad song seeming to say what her mind tried to put together. She couldn’t count the tears she had shed in that very corner or the words she’d used to comfort her heart. Lies perhaps, but hoping beyond all reason that they were not.
This night was a luxury. One she did not often give herself, if a luxury it could be called. She needed this night. This one night, sitting alone at a bar amongst lonely souls like hers.
“I remember every second I was with you. Each touch. Every kiss.” Her eyes closed again, savoring the memory of those kisses, of those touches.
She took a deep breath. Her dreams could not be broken. She knew they were still out there, her family, her love.
“As long as you want me, I will be by your side.”
With one last drink, she stared across the bar and knew she would keep searching, as long as she had to, held on by the comfort of the lonely and the beams of a neon moon.