(Oh wow, I think that’s my old girlfriend.) I was getting lunch with my friends at my favorite restaurant in Arcadia, and she was sitting outside on the patio. My heart jumped inside of my chest.

I walked up to her table and said hello. She hopped up to give me a big hug. She; explained she just got back from her trip to Italy, and she recounted the details of the art and architecture. (She’s as cool as I remember.) It meant a lot to me to hear about how grew in her faith while she was out on her own, exploring the churches of Europe.

She opened up her sketchbook and pointed to her sketches. She’s now an illustrator for a local architecture company, and she still shows her work in galleries around town. She wasn’t self-consumed, but she was excited about life, and she wanted to share that with me. She’s such a beautiful person.

It was awkward to sit back down with my friends after being gone for almost twenty minutes. My friends wanted to taunt me about my thing for hot Catholic chics, but they held back. I didn’t have much to say either. I just ate my sandwich and thought about life.

I think Stephanie and I had the most clean breakup ever. Breakups are never easy, but we tried to do everything the right way, from way before we dated all the way up to now, long after it’s was over. Though we don’t see each other much, we’re still friends.

This is the way it is supposed to be.