Without Trace

I had a friend from my undergraduate days--an artist, a freethinker, an awesome coffee-maker. 

I last saw her two and a half weeks ago, and now she's gone.  I went to Starbucks, upset, knowing my relationship was about to end.  It's always just a feeling you get in your bones--that you're being left behind.  I was happy that night, temporarily, for sushi with a good writer friend of mine and seeing my artist friend working behind the counter.  I chit-chatted with her briefly; she complimented my hair, asked me how I was.  I didn't go into specifics, and I told her my car dilemmas appeared to be over, and we needed to try to hang out soon.  She comped my Caffe Americano.  I told her I'd be sitting outside if she got a slow minute and wanted to talk.

She never came out.  She didn't say goodbye when she left after closing. 

I tried to text message her to arrange a time to hang out, and she never responded.  I left messages on Facebook when my car decided to have more issues with it to let her know I wouldn't be back to Florence for awhile.  Then one day shortly after, she deleted me from her friends list; her fiance was no longer listed as 'engaged' to her.  I didn't know what had happened.  I started to grow all-the-more concerned when she never returned my continued efforts at contact. 

Then, I found out yesterday night on my way to a party that she cut all ties with everyone here and moved to New York without forewarning to anyone.  She changed her phone number and told her fiance the night before she left she was leaving.  I immediately thought back to my last encounter with her, wishing I had spent more time talking to her rather than lamenting in my anxiety attack. 

It's funny how we take people for granted whether we mean to do it or not.  I always just felt like I'd randomly run into her at Starbucks all the time, since I go there every time I'm in Florence.  It really hurts when you feel like you don't get a proper goodbye from someone; it hurts even worse when you don't realize they're leaving.  I found her again on Facebook and emailed her wishing her well and hoping she finds whatever it is she's looking for.  I apologized for our last encounter being so regrettably short. 

I told her I'd miss her.