Her thumb moved aimlessly against her phone as she sipped her coffee and waited for the morning meeting to start. It was too early for anyone to be functioning and the lawyer found herself the first one to the conference room. Courtney liked to be early to meetings, it gave her time to compile her thoughts and she felt like she had an advantage when she was the prepared before her coworkers.
Being Courtney though, she had throughly gone over the case night before and now didn't have much to do while she waited. So she did what anyone who needed something to do did: checked all of her social media apps. She didn't have time to post much anymore. This was her first job out of law school and she was hell bent on proving herself, leaving little to no time for a social life to document, or to see what anyone else who actually had a social life was up to.
Courtney was slightly jealous as she scrolled through Instagram and saw that her peers were spending their twenties traveling, getting engaged, and even starting families; but she knew that her chosen path would pay off. It took sacrifice and dedication and she had learned what it cost to meet her goals.
Her finger paused over the image of one of the people that her ambition had taken from her. Right off the bat her heart fluttered at the sight of his smile.
The picture had to have been taken by someone else because the photo was of his profile with him looking away from the camera. He was shirtless and mid workout at the gym. It came to no surprise that he would be such a show off, he had always been cocky about his looks. Courtney checked to the door of the conference room, making sure that she was still alone, and allowed herself to linger on the photo.
He looked great if she was being completely honest with herself. His body was toned and he'd gained muscle. It had been years, which clouded her memory, but he didn't have the build of a the teenage boy she'd known anymore. The muscles in his arm were tense from the barbel he was holding, which brought Courtney's attention to the tattoos inked on his skin. His whole right arm was covered and it was mesmerizing for her eyes to follow the patterns and images.
Her eyes widened when they caught one particular tattoo. It was a little faded, but still clearly present. She was sure he would have gotten it covered up, but among the sleeve of tattoos was that small red heart that they had gotten together ages go. A symbol of how they were going to love each other forever. But forever ended too soon...
Courtney rolled up the left sleeve of her blouse. The inside of her elbow reflected the same image. She had meant to get it removed, but kept putting it off. Now there was no reason for her to still have the tattoo and yet she couldn't get rid of it. She looked back to the photo of Duncan and the tattoo they shared. Her thumb hovered over the image. She took a deep breath and in a split decision, hit the 'like' button.
Just as she did the conference room door swung open and her boss entered along with another employee. As she greeted them she pulled down her sleeved, and pushed thoughts of lost love to the back of her mind.