I waited patiently for the hour to arrive, but the truth was, inside I was a nervous wreck. I could not stop thinking about you. What will we talk about? What will we do? Those and millions more questions flooded my brain. But all that mattered was that I was going to be doing all of those things with you. I sat there thinking about all the things we could do when Carmen interrupted my thoughts, ” Dane, it’s Alice on the phone”. I thought up every bad thing that the phone call could be about. Were you calling to cancel, calling to re- schedule, calling to tell me that you didn’t love me anymore? And then I heard it, I heard your voice calling my name, and once again, just hearing your voice calmed my being.

I closed my eyes, and heard your voice, and all of a sudden, I saw the two of us sitting next to each other. Your voice was filled with a nervous calm when you spoke, ” hey Dane, how you doin?”

I didn’t want to say anything, all I wanted to do was listen to your voice grace the planet, but then I realized you had asked me a question and I answered, ” never better” and I meant it. How could anything feel bad when I can hear you speak, knowing I would see you in a little while.

I could almost hear you smile as you spoke next, ” I was just calling to make sure you were still up for hanging out later”. God Alice, you’re voice is so beautiful, with every word you say I close my eyes and listen to every echo that sounds through my ears. I miss this, I miss feeling so close to you, but then again we never really were apart.