[Verse 1 - acoustic guitar only, piano underneath, slow and tender] You came to the door with your coat already on I knew before you knocked what you’d come here to say I put the kettle on because I didn’t know what else to do And we sat there both pretending it was just another day
[Slow bass come in] The love was still there, just not the way it used to live The kind that wanted something more than either of us could give And staying would have meant asking you to be smaller than you were And I wouldn’t do that. I still wouldn’t.
[strings come in] [Pre-Chorus - 12-string guitar enters softly] Some things end not because they were wrong But because holding on Would cost the other person more than letting go
[cajon comes in] [Chorus - acoustic bass enters, soft harmonies underneath] So I said the word The one that costs everything to say And watched you breathe a little easier Walking out of my door That’s the price of loving someone right You sometimes have to be the one Who says goodbye
[Verse 2] And then there was the one who couldn’t find the ground Who needed somewhere further than I could follow I folded up the parts of him he’d need out there And held him at the station until he had to go
He wasn’t going to someone else He was just tired - and needed room And the kindest thing I had left to give him Was stepping back and giving it
[Pre-Chorus - harmonies return] Some things end not because they’re broken But because the shape of what they need Requires more space than you can hold
[Chorus - full guitars, bass, piano, keys] So I said the word The one that costs everything to say And watched him breathe a little easier Getting onto the train That’s the price of loving someone right You sometimes have to be the one Who says goodbye
[Bridge - piano enters quietly, the deepest weigh, key lift] And then there are the goodbyes that never happened The ones still living somewhere in your chest Because the moment didn’t come Or they were gone before you found the words Or you left before they knew
The goodbye you rehearsed a hundred times That no one ever heard The one you’re still carrying Still looking for its door
The cost of goodbyes Is not just in the leaving It’s in the ones that never Got to be said at all
[Final Chorus - piano stays, harmonies fuller, slower and deeper, key lift] Still paying the price Of every word I should have said out loud Still carrying the ones That never found their way out That’s the weight of loving someone wrong And sometimes loving them right There’s always something left behind When you say goodbye
[Outro] Some goodbyes are mercy. Some are grief. Some are both at exactly the same time. … And you pay for all of them. Even the ones you had to say. Even the ones you’d say again. So I’ll say it one last time as you fade out of my lfe… Goodbye.