He thought about what their lives would be like if they were flat characters in a dime-store romance novel. He thought about the years that had passed and the things that had left and the feelings that had remained. He thought about asking her to come away with him, to leap into the what-ifs they left behind on that cold October morning so many years ago.

Would she say yes?

Their story had been left unfinished, the questions of their past unanswered. So much life had been lived apart-- too much? He thought about how love could fill in whatever gaps they found difficult to cross.

Could it do that?

He thought about how their lives had changed.

There were things left unsaid, regrets unfulfilled. They had both been young when it happened-- too young to know what either truly wanted, too young to see what could and couldn't be fixed. She had shed tears when it ended, and he only remembered the bitterness in his mouth as he walked away from something broken.

He thought about how the gaps had been too big to fill, how sometimes love just wasn't enough.