When we woke up Sunday morning, he told me in Spanish - I’m supposed to be on a bus to Nicaragua today and my heart sank.

Shoot. I thought he lived here. I thought he was just another surf instructor I hadn’t met yet. But he didn’t live here. He was traveling through. And he was suppose to be in Tamarindo for only one night. His goal was to get to the United States by January and it was Sunday, October 20, 2024.

I remember going to Noguis to watch the sunset. My second child and his grandparents from my ex’s side happened to walk past us. Divine timing. I met a guy last night. Randomly.

By our first weekend, we went to San Jose for music. And the plan was eleven days of togetherness and then a big celebration on Halloween and he would be off continuing his adventures on November 1st. Eleven days together. A containership. A start, middle, and pre determined end. Not exactly what I had been dreaming of. You can’t force anyone to do something they don’t want to do. You can’t choose someone else’s actions regardless of how desperately you want them to change or choose you or whatever the storyline is in your head. I learned that over and over again in my marriage that lingered longer than it needed to.

Nowadays I don’t have time or interest in chasing something that isn’t chasing me right back.

It started with a three day ask