The Space She Left Behind: A Thursday Inspiration

Written for Thursday Inspiration #326 –
“To Love Somebody”. Here’s my response.

For this week’s Thursday Inspiration, Jim Adams asks us to respond to the challenge in any number of ways. I have chosen to feature a story and song where a guy feels like his life is worthless without his woman being with him.

The Space She Left Behind

Danny sat on the edge of the bed they used to share, turning her old coffee mug over in his hands. Three months since she’d walked out, and the apartment still smelled faintly like her shampoo …. or maybe he was just imagining it now.

He’d told himself the usual things. You’ll get through this. People survive heartbreak every day. But survival felt like the wrong word. Survival was for disasters, for accidents. This was slower. This was waking up and remembering, every single morning, that the best part of his world had quietly packed her things into two suitcases and driven away.

He wasn’t sure who he was without her; that was the honest truth of it. She had been his compass point …. not because she’d made him that way, but because somewhere along the line he’d stopped tending to his own life and just orbited hers.

He set the mug down on the nightstand.

Outside, a neighbor’s kid was laughing at something. A car alarm went off and then stopped. The world was still running without his permission.

Maybe that’s the point, he thought. It doesn’t need my permission.

He picked up his phone and called his brother …. someone he hadn’t spoken to in too long.  The phone rang twice.

“Hey, Joey” Danny said, when the line picked up. “I messed up, bro. I need your advice.”

❖ ❖ ❖ ❖

This is “All Out Of Love” by Air Supply

Thursday Inspiration #326 To Love Somebody

Many thanks to Jim Adams for this week’s inspiration. Thanks to you all for stopping by for a look and a listen.

That’s all she wrote, kids.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2026

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