The Voicemail Bridge
Read the storyAfter her beloved sister Isabelle dies from cystic fibrosis, aspiring San Francisco baker Jill Morgan copes with her grief by continuing to leave voicemails on Isabelle’s old phone number, unaware it has been reassigned to Austin real-estate agent Wes Harper. Lonely and unable to form meaningful relationships, Wes becomes captivated by Jill’s funny, honest, and heartbreaking messages and gradually falls in love with her long before they ever meet. Through her voicemails, he learns her dreams, fears, dating disasters, grief, and everyday stories, and later Jill realizes that unlike anyone else in her life, Wes genuinely loved listening to her talk and hearing every story she had to tell. Using information from her voicemails, Wes arranges a chance meeting in San Francisco, and over the course of two unforgettable weeks they fall deeply in love. During that time, Wes tells Jill about his friends Andy and Breeda’s upcoming wedding in Austin and nervously asks her to be his plus-one. Though surprised, Jill eventually accepts. However, on Wes’s final night in San Francisco, just as their relationship is about to become physical, guilt overwhelms him over the secret he’s been hiding. Unable to continue lying to her, but too afraid to tell the truth, he abruptly leaves, apologizes, and returns to Austin. Months later, Jill attends Andy and Breeda’s wedding as Wes’s guest, and it is the first time they’ve seen each other since that painful night. The feelings between them are still undeniable, but everything shatters when Jill discovers a phone in Wes’s jacket pocket and realizes it carries Isabelle’s number. When she calls it and the phone rings in her hand, she learns the devastating truth: Wes has been receiving and listening to her voicemails all along. Feeling violated and betrayed, Jill ends things and leaves. More than a year passes without contact. Jill rebuilds her life while Wes never dates anyone else and never stops loving her. When priceless voicemails Isabelle left behind are accidentally lost, Wes secretly spends months recovering them and sends them back anonymously, expecting nothing in return. As Jill slowly uncovers the truth, she begins to understand that Wes didn’t fall in love with an idealized version of her—he fell in love with the real Jill, from her ridiculous breakfast taco debates to her deepest fears and biggest dreams. Realizing that he genuinely loved hearing her voice, her stories, and even the smallest details of her day, Jill star