The water was low here below the dam, overgrown and littered with large boulders. There were clearings where the stalks didn’t grow, and in those patches you could see down into the pools, alive with minnows and crayfish and covered from above by the delicate webs spiders had suspended between the reeds. Being there, surrounded by nature and with the steady hum of traffic over a nearby bridge, I began to relax.

We rested on one of the boulders near the coastline and watched the sun set. It was the first time we had sat quietly with one another, and I let the comfort of us being together slowly sink in—-something I struggled to do for much of our time with one another.

We sat there overlooking the tailwater until dusk, at which point we made our way back through the forest toward the car. It was warm, and as night settled in we found ourselves surrounded by fireflies, blinking in every direction through the deep wood. Still not a word spoken between us, I felt love like I hadn’t in a long time-—in a way I didn’t know I ever would again. It had been a long road, and I just wanted things to be different now.

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