On the edge of a forgotten highway, under the vast void of a starless night, Aaron found himself driving alone. The hum of the engine was the only companion he had, and even that felt distant, almost as if it were an echo of a life he once knew—a life filled with laughter, love, and dreams. As he navigated the winding road, memories flickered through his mind like fleeting headlights, illuminating moments that felt both precious and painful.

He could still see her smile, hear her laughter—both of which had once been his guiding stars. But those moments had faded, cast aside by choices made in haste. He wasn’t in London, nor in the sun-soaked beauty of the south of France. He wasn’t on one of those moments that people dream about; he was simply heading back to Nashville, feeling the weight of every regret he had collected on the journey of life. The thought of it felt like a heavy anchor tethering him to the past.

Aaron had hit the gas, a fast train rolling down a mountain, letting the wind whip through the cracked window as he remembered her there, a twinkle in her eye, longing for adventure. Yet here he was, crawling home, crying out in solitude that he no longer understood where the tracks led. He could see a distant memory—a ghost of happiness, a sign to exit, but he felt trapped in a loop of his own making.

“I know I hurt you,” he muttered to himself, the words hanging in the air like a thick fog. What was he to say? He had made his choices, and now they bore the weight of a stain that would never really wash away. Was that blood or a wine stain on her wedding dress? The question haunted him, a sharp reminder of how things went awry.

As Nashville loomed closer, he felt a strange mixture of relief and despair wash over him. He thought of the bad breaks, the laughter that had been shared and the silence that had taken its place, wondering about the ‘what-ifs’ and ‘could-have-beens.’ Maybe, just maybe, he was a storm front rolling through a valley on a sweltering July day, tearing apart the pieces of a perfect summer just to feel something again.

He longed for warmth, for the mundane safety of a life that offered no surprises but also no pain. But deep down, he knew wouldn’t it be so hard to realign the stars, to shift the course of destiny just for one more chance? Could he change a southern night back to the bright spark of someone who once loved him fiercely?

As the outskirts of Nashville approached, he spotted a familiar scar in the blue sky near the old airport—a painful reminder of love lost but never forgotten. As he drove, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was still talking crazily on the driver’s side, reminiscing not only about what he had lost but also about what he might still salvage. And in the quiet of that night, he knew he would always love her like a long goodbye, the echoes of their time together imprinted in the fabric of his very being.