Dear Level
Your Ex Has Moved On. Do the Same, Bro.
Sometimes you have to create your own closure. Here’s how.
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
A few months before the pandemic struck, my partner and I decided to play hooky. We went on a date, wandering our town, doing those activities that locals never get a chance to do. First we sat down for an unhurried cup of coffee. Then we strolled through a mostly empty museum, stopping to read the captions and descriptions for the artifacts in each exhibit. We capped the evening with dinner at a restaurant in a newly opened luxury hotel.
Again, there were lots of vacant tables (where was everyone?), so the maître d’hôtel immediately led us through the bar area toward the dining room. After a day of moving slowly and laughing at inside jokes, I was completely relaxed and a bit giddy as I walked ahead of my partner, holding his hand. And then, before my brain could even transmit the information, I felt a chill run up my back and the hairs on my arms stand up.
Sitting a few feet away from me — and getting closer with every step I took — was my ex.
We’d been apart for many years by this point. And we were still great friends. We…
