Marshall Returns
As I knew Marshall's job at Battelle was only going to last through the summer, I called him near the end of July and asked him when he would be home. He told me that he planned to come to town and move into his new apartment on 8/10/2020. He would go to Cleveland to spend the rest of the month with his family before starting both classes at the Ohio State University and a new job in early September.
August had a summer job last year in Colorado. She had to come back to Columbus to finish her last semester of college at Ohio State. Upon her return, she had to get a new job. After a lengthy search, she got hired at an indoor rock climbing gym called Vertical Adventures.
As soon as August started working there, she and a co-worker named Ben hit it off. She spent the whole semester talking to me about him. After some minor convincing from me, August asked Ben out, and on New Year's Eve, they started dating.
In early January, August went on an internship in Utah. Things didn’t go as planned with the internship and she ended up back in Colorado with Arden. When Vertical Adventures shut down because of COVID-19, Ben drove from Columbus to Loveland and spent the entire lockdown with August and Arden. When the lockdown ended, Ben and August returned to Columbus, where they spent all their days together. All of this is to say that since the middle of March, August and Ben have been together constantly, they are nearly inseparable. Unfortunately, this eventually had to come to an end.
Ben's pre-COVID plan for this year was to move to Pittsburgh to help a struggling gym owned by Vertical Adventures get back on its feet. The only thing COVID did was delay this plan. On July 31, 2020, Ben officially moved to Pittsburgh.
August, Aspen, and I went to Ben's apartment to load everything into the U-Haul he was renting. We finished getting everything in the truck but realized there was no room for his plants in the cab. Fortunately, August was driving to Pittsburgh with Ben, so he would have to come back and drop her off. We took all his plants and put them in August's car and drove back to our street, Meadow Park Drive.
We got back to my "sisters'" house, took the plants inside, and August went inside to say goodbye. By that time, Ben had arrived and parked the U-Haul right in front of the house.
I walked with August down the driveway consoling her with words of hope and love. Right when I was about to get all inspirational, my phone started to ring!
"Hey, Marshall!" I said, "Can I call you back? Bens about to- Actually you're going to miss him so I'll give my phone to him." When I gave Ben my phone, he gave me an awkward look, but I wasn't aware enough to figure out what was going on.
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