Closer | Aaron Hotchner

II

Not strangers anymore

Luna's favorite thing about taking care of old people –besides that rewarding feeling she went home with after every shift– was hearing the endless stories they had to tell.

And after Sally, a seventy-two-year-old very wise petite lady insisted on talking about her nurse's love life, the beautiful story of how she ended up marrying her husband made Luna emotional.

"I didn't meet him until I was old, almost sixty, and he was my true love. So don't lose hope, that guy didn't deserve you, and sooner than later the right one will show up in your life."

It had been six months since Elijah broke up with her, throwing a three-year relationship into the trash. She truly thought he was the one.

At least during the first two years.

They met at the nursing home. He went regularly to see his grandmother and Luna was her favorite nurse, so the lady always made them interact in one way or another. Until one day he dared to ask her out. From the beginning, he was attracted to her, but he also liked how shy she'd get around him. Luna told him on their first date what her other job was, which surprised him a lot but didn't seem to scare him. The first two years were amazing, the sex was good and she was there for him when his grandmother passed away.

But by the third year, he wasn't the same. It bothered him how late she arrived home     –even when they didn't live together– and how sometimes she couldn't make it to see him. She still loved him, but she later realized she just loved the habit of being with him, which was the only reason they lasted, it was just habit.

The break-up really affected her, mostly because of the things he spat without thinking.

"You're never gonna find anyone who'll want you." He might as well have said she wasn't worth it.

But the sad times didn't last long. What started to get to her the most once she was over him was the lack of physical affection.

And it wasn't like she hasn't been single before. Luna is a person of long relationships and since she was seventeen she has had three boyfriends.

The one that lasted longer was her first one and they were together for four years, then she stayed single for two years until she met her second boyfriend and they lasted ten –awful– months only because he was too insecure about her being a stripper, but when he got violent Luna cut him off. Scared of him of course, he was the reason she took self-defense classes when it should've been only because of the pricks she worked with, but some of them were more respectful than him.

Then she enjoyed being single for two more years until she met Elijah.

Being single was never an issue to her. If she was honest, her other two boyfriends didn't please her in bed and she always managed to do it later on her own. But Elijah... he treated her right and sex became so important to her, so this time singleness was really getting to her.