Jacob gently pushed the door open in front of me, scanning my face for uncertainty. I swallowed, but met his eyes and nodded, stepping slowly forward, following him as he entered the bright, open room, natural light filling it from the bay window at the far end. Just below the open glass, a bundle of blankets and assorted items lay, and I made out a chest, rising and falling. I traced the vague form of a body up to a shockingly pale face. A face that reminded me of something else…

Jacob approached the girl slowly, hesitantly. She turned her head, so slowly, and finally met his eyes. A smile slowly spread across her face, but it lit up her eyes first. She began to almost glow, and I recognised the emotions in the room, the way they gazed at each other, the way he centered his movements around her. I was touched, and I forgot all about the relationship Jacob and I once had. It was cast down, made null by this-just watching this was enough to make me realised that, had I chosen to fight it, I was against an immeasurable power of emotions that would crush me beyond what I had been before.

I hadn’t been sure what would happen when I came here-Jacob had asked, and I saw something in his eyes that forced me to accept. A part of me wanted to see her, to see how Jacob reacted to her, the type of person he was around her. The other part of me was intensely afraid, of what my reaction might be, especially considering her disability. But, as he stretched out a hand to run it through her chestnut-brown, wavy hair, I was satisfied in myself. Where I had expected insane jealousy and outrage, I found calm; content. It was no matter that I was left out of this harmonious equation. I was happy to merely witness it, happy to feel the sort of…fuzzy glow (soppy but true) that had developed in my stomach from seeing Jacob with someone who was truly and totally compatible with him.

Not his soulmate. Something far, far stronger.

I spent the rest of the day in that room, watching the sun sink lower in the sky. Jacob introduced me with a huge and grin, and Cailyn (I loved the way Jacob said her name-like it was something delicate, precious) smiled at me in return, nodding in place of a hug or handshake. I smiled hesitantly, unsure how to act around such a person, for several reasons. But soon, I found it completely natural, and easy. Jacob pulled up two chairs for us to sit at; his at her head, mine next to his, further out from the window, but giving me a superb view of the well cultivated front garden below.