Engaging Invitation

I stood as still as a breeze

on a southern October night.

Estella hugged herself,

shifting her weight to her back foot.

My eyes rocked as the moonlight

danced off her skin.

I’d give anything to search

for the meaning of my luck

with her in my life.

But I’d drown, peeling back

the trials and tribulations

we’d gone through for God

to bring us back together

over a rollercoaster

of open-handed chances

that brought us here this evening.

Estella bought me a plane ticket.

I’m seeing her for the first time

since she’d saved enough for law school.

Estella wiped out my bank account with a note

on the table and charged me with a mental breakdown

at the hospital, which I had no intention of paying.

And here.

And now.

I’m before the woman who took everything from me.

Estella brushed tears with her fingers and closed the distance between us.

“Look,” Estella said with more remorse than I’d given her credit for. “I shouldn’t have—”

“No,” I said, sharper than I’d wanted to. “You shouldn’t have taken—”

“Everything,” Estella said with a crack in her voice. “I didn’t know how fucked up that was,” Estella sighed. “But I know it now.”

I released the tension in my jaw and gave her a soothing glance. “Maybe I over—”

“No,” Estella said, approaching me. She placed her hand on my forearm. “You have every right to feel…”

“To feel torched?” I grinned.

Estella nodded. “Torched.” A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Used to be my favorite word when I’d get; well, you know.”

I motioned. “So, what did you want with me?” I said. “You had something to tell me.”

“Notice anything?” Estella wrapped her hair around her neck and held up her ring finger.

“I thought you were dying or some shit,” I said. “But you brought me to rub your engagement in my face?” I began to twist. “I’m going back to Seattle.”

“No.” Estella grabbed a fistful of my shirt.

Puzzled, I faced her.

“The truth is…” Estella began to motion as though she’d rehearsed her lines in a full-length bedroom mirror. “Fuck. This was easier in the mirror.”

“Just say what you need to say, and I’ll be gone.”

Estella focused her attention on me. “This ring symbolizes what I feel and have felt for years for you. When I say I’m engaged, I mean that I’m engaged to you.”

I tilted my head and narrowed one eye. “Is this some kind of trick? I mean, it is October.”

“Goddamn it, Mark,” Estella said, quivering with sobs.

A sober reality washed across my face. “You’re serious,” I said. “Aren’t you?”

Estella avoided eye contact but rocked her head.

I embraced her. She went limp, as though she needed me to be her other half. And to that, I said yes.

 By Andy Cooper

From: United States

Website: https://drinkcoffeewrite.online/

Twitter: AC0040