I held her in my arms, hoping and praying that this wouldn’t be my last time with her in my embrace. I dared a look down at her and my eyes traced the contours of her beautiful body and I couldn’t help but notice how perfectly she fit in my arms, in the shape of my body. I didn’t want her in anyone else’s arms but my own, but there was nothing I could do. She sniffled so I tilted her chin up slightly and I saw a single tear trail down her cheek. Slowly, I wiped the tear away with a soft murmur and tilted her head up by her chin.

My lips brushed against hers and she kissed me back, new tears springing from her eyes and running down her cheeks, falling into our mouths and bringing the dampening sadness into the kiss. But, she was already gone and there was nothing I could do. She broke our kiss and tilted her head down slightly, warm breath tickling my lips. "I’m sorry," she murmured and I tightened my grip on her, not wanting to let her go.

She buried her head in my chest and we stood there in silence, her wet tears dripping from her cheeks and onto my shirt. I would never leave this moment with her and I knew she wouldn’t either. Even when she was out of my arms, we couldn’t tell ourselves we didn’t love each other.

She slipped herself out of my arms and my chest began to ache. Looking at her raven black hair stretching down her back in ringlets, her soft blue eyes watching mine with weary sadness, I wanted nothing more than to bring her back in my arms and never let her go. She gave me a soft smile that made my legs feel as if they couldn’t support me, but somehow I forced a smile back at her. "I love you," I whispered and she nodded, biting her lip as she held back more tears.

Then she was gone and I found myself falling to my knees. My eyes were cast into the sky and I let my gaze trail across the clouds that were painted into the empty light blue atmosphere. I felt it was wrong; if I was this lost, how could there not be rain? But, the clouds wanted nothing to do with my mood like in those movies where everything turned out okay. No one would understand my pain except for her and now, she was gone.

The clouds passed lazily overhead, their destination to the edges of the earth and back. I picked myself up to my feet and dusted off my jeans. My hands rested on my chest where her salty tears had dampened my shirt. I closed my eyes and waited for this feeling to go away, after all, it was I who had let her go. We would never have been able to be together, yet I knew, like the clouds, that no one could tell us how to feel or what to do.

We could never lose what we had, this love that we had so deeply fallen into. But, in a few hours, she would be back on a plane and returning home. There was nothing I could do and I found my eyes back on the sky. A soft breeze billowed around me and I hoped she was feeling the same thing as me, the breeze on her face, knowing we were still connected by whatever tie we had.

And I knew, in that moment, that I had never let her go. I would wait for her, wait until the moment where we could be like the clouds, go to the edges of the earth and back. And we would be together; no one would be able to stop us. I clung to that small hope and forced myself to walk away from this place tampered with goodbyes. "I’ll come back for you," I said to the air and I was sure she knew, too.

After all, isn’t this what love is?