My hands started shaking before I even picked it up.<\/p>\n
The bottle had cracked open when it hit the floor, the thin plastic splitting along the side. A faint scent filled the room\u2014too sweet, too strong. I almost pushed it away again out of habit.<\/p>\n
But something caught my eye.<\/p>\n
There was a small roll tucked inside.<\/p>\n
Carefully hidden.<\/p>\n
My breath hitched.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo way\u2026\u201d I whispered to myself.<\/p>\n
I knelt down slowly, like if I moved too fast, whatever this was might disappear. With trembling fingers, I pulled it out.<\/p>\n
It was wrapped in clear tape, protected from the perfume.<\/p>\n
Who does that?<\/p>\n
Him.<\/p>\n
Of course it was him.<\/p>\n
Tears started building before I even opened it.<\/p>\n
Inside\u2026 was a tiny piece of paper, folded so many times it had almost turned soft.<\/p>\n
I sat down right there on the floor.<\/p>\n
For a moment, I just held it.<\/p>\n
Three weeks.<\/p>\n
Three weeks between that stupid argument in my head\u2014about a \u201ccheap\u201d gift\u2014and losing him forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m sorry\u2026\u201d I whispered, though he wasn\u2019t there to hear it.<\/p>\n
Then I opened it.<\/p>\n
His handwriting hit me like a punch to the chest.<\/p>\n
Messy. Familiar. Warm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re reading this, it means you finally gave the perfume a chance\u2026 or you dropped it like you always do when you\u2019re cleaning in a hurry.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n A broken laugh escaped me through tears.<\/p>\n That was him.<\/p>\n Always teasing. Always knowing me too well.<\/p>\n I wiped my face and kept reading.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s not your kind of gift. I saw your face when you opened it. You tried to hide it, but you\u2019re terrible at that.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I closed my eyes for a second.<\/p>\n He wasn\u2019t wrong.<\/p>\n I had smiled, but inside I felt\u2026 disappointed. After ten years, I thought he\u2019d do something bigger.<\/p>\n Something that matched what I gave him.<\/p>\n I kept reading, my heart pounding.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to get you something else. Something bigger. But I ran out of time.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n My chest tightened.<\/p>\n Ran out of time.<\/p>\n Did he know?<\/p>\n \u201cSo I thought I\u2019d leave you something that would last longer than any gift.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n My fingers pressed harder against the paper.<\/p>\n \u201cYou always say I don\u2019t talk enough about how I feel. So here it is.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Tears started falling freely now.<\/p>\n \u201cTen years with you wasn\u2019t enough. Not even close. But if that\u2019s all I get, then I want you to know it was the best part of my life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I covered my mouth, trying to hold in the sob that was rising.<\/p>\n \u201cYou made a home out of nothing. You made me better than I ever thought I could be. And even when you\u2019re mad at me\u2026 I still look at you like I did on day one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I could barely see the words anymore.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t hold on to things. Not gifts, not regrets. Use everything. Live fully. Laugh loudly. And please\u2026 don\u2019t stay alone because of me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I shook my head, crying harder.<\/p>\n \u201cHow am I supposed to do that?\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n But his words kept pulling me forward.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd one more thing\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n At the bottom, there was a small drawing.<\/p>\n A little heart.<\/p>\n So simple. So him.<\/p>\n \u201cCheck the back.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n My hands fumbled as I flipped the note over.<\/p>\n There was a number written there.<\/p>\n A bank account.<\/p>\n And a short message:<\/p>\n \u201cFor your dream. You always put yours last. Don\u2019t anymore. I saved $8,000. It\u2019s yours. Go do that thing you\u2019re always talking about.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n I stared at it.<\/p>\n Eight thousand dollars.<\/p>\n All this time\u2026 while I thought he didn\u2019t care enough to get me something meaningful\u2026<\/p>\n He had been saving.<\/p>\n Planning.<\/p>\n Thinking about me.<\/p>\n My shoulders shook as the truth hit me all at once.<\/p>\n I had been so focused on what I didn\u2019t get\u2026<\/p>\n That I never saw what he was really giving me.<\/p>\n I looked around the room.<\/p>\n At the quiet.<\/p>\n At the life we built together.<\/p>\n And for the first time since he passed\u2026 something inside me shifted.<\/p>\n The pain was still there.<\/p>\n Heavy. Deep.<\/p>\n But underneath it\u2026 there was something else.<\/p>\n Gratitude.<\/p>\n Love.<\/p>\n And a strange kind of strength.<\/p>\n I picked up the broken bottle again.<\/p>\n That \u201ccheap\u201d perfume.<\/p>\n I pressed what was left of it to my wrist.<\/p>\n The scent was still strong.<\/p>\n Still there.<\/p>\n Just like him.<\/p>\n \u201cI get it now,\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n And for the first time in weeks\u2026<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t feel completely lost anymore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My hands started shaking before I even picked it up. The bottle had cracked open when it hit the floor, the thin plastic splitting along the side. A faint scent filled the room\u2014too sweet, too strong. I almost pushed it away again out of habit. But something caught my eye. There was a small roll […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5237,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5236\/revisions\/5237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tappyli.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}