LOVE & TRAVEL - DECOUPLING

Ona long trip through Spain, Sophie Yun Mancini bids a tender goodbye to an old love

- Sophie Yun Mancini

Salt goes well with salt. Cured fish, briny vermouth, jamón, sweat, seathey complement tears, feeding each other with a soft sting. This occurred to me, floating on my back, off a cove in Mallorca. Tears slid from my eyes as the sea washed across my lips. X perched up on the rocks. He never had the urge to immediately fling his body into saltwater like I did, nor splash about until the sun went low.

After five years together, X and I had broken up less than 48 hours ago in New York. Somewhat opposites, we'd begun to diverge in ways that felt untenable, stifled within the roles we'd built for one anotherhis quietude to my chaos. I felt a growing urge to escape from my own life, to stretch time through too many drinks and nights that never ended. I'd get home later and later, until things began to really fracture.

He had planned to accompany me for a month of travel through Spain: spending June across Mallorca, Valencia, and Madrid.

The plane tickets were nonrefundable and everything was booked. As we faced the realities of him moving out, uprooting one more thing felt nearly impossible. So we went ahead with the trip. The decisions you make with a punctured heart are hilarious like that.