It shouldn't be...

[whispersecho]

It shouldn't be this hard. Such small words, and yet they were near impossible to say. Why? Was it the implications? The absolute certainty needed to mean them... for all time? The questions galled him as he paced the darkness. If he did this, if he said the words, it would mean no second thoughts. No turning back. Ever. And nothing would be the same, could be the same. Maybe that was why he'd never been able to say them before... to her or anyone else. Up to now he had always been able to avoid those words.

Good Bye.