the blACK book: the life and times of successful singletons on Nantucket
What keeps us looking bACK
Holly Finigan
“I miss you,” she said, her lips away from the crowd so no one could really hear her talk but him. “I miss you too,” he said back quickly, handing her a glass of champagne, looking around to see if anyone was watching them . “Well, we should get together sometimes,” she half stated, half questioned.
“You should call me,” he said.
She waited a moment and smiled. “I erased your number,” she shrugged. “You call me.” He paused, and said what she knew all along. “I erased yours, too.” And they both laughed and realized they probably would never talk again.
The One That Got Away. Everyone’s got one somewhere in the world. And on Nantucket, there’s always that one that slipped through your fingers like a handful of Surfside sand.
That fall fling that went terribly wrong in February. That random night with that guy you’ve always known that turned into a three-week whirlwind affair. That girl that came to the Rock to visit her friend for a weekend and stayed in the heart of an ACK guy for months to come. That one person who you grew to love as a friend, but ruined it by letting that emotional love become a physical lust.
And you know what hurts the most about these ones that got away? You see them out everywhere – ‘Sconset, Stop and Shop, Straight Wharf – after the dust settles, after the physical loves dies, after the memories are stored far away from you heart, after you gain back those five pounds that you lost when nothing tasted good, and you realize that those beginning feelings, that initial love for that person is still there. And probably always will be. And when getting back together will never happen, and when you realize that you’re both happy with new partners, you remember that all Nantucket relationships are special. Even the quick ones. The rebound ones. The fling ones.
Even though he might be deleted from your phone book, he’ll never be deleted from your little blACK book.
Holly Finigan writes a weekly column on life as a single woman on Nantucket. Holly graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2005 with a bachelors in journalism, which has so far turned out to be a career in bartending. She has spent the past four summers working at various Nantucket restaurants, travelling during the off-season to the U.S. Virgin Islands and New Zealand. She can be found galivanting around town with her girlfriends, or you can email her at hollyfinigan@yahoo.com.
Previous blACK book Columns:
The Catch
