Beth
She stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. A mess of blonde hair tumbled down over red-rimmed blue eyes. Her cheeks were puffy and tear-stained.
This isn’t real. You’ll wake up tomorrow, and Davis will be here, just like he is every day. He’ll come crawl in to bed and for half an hour, everything will be perfect.
It had been so easy once it started. Davis had been just who she was looking for. A gentleman. A man who doted on her and never had a negative word to say about her. His only care was that she as happy. She had felt safe with him. She had felt secure. He was strong, experienced.
She had loved him. She had loved his experience. She had loved the way he commanded every room he ever walked into. She had loved the steel in his eyes and the silver that was beginning to streak his hair. She had loved the way he smiled when he saw her, the way his mouth would tick up at the right, the easy confidence, bordering on arrogance, it showed. She loved feeling his eyes on her as she moved about a room.
Now he was gone.
She balled up her fists in the arms of her sweater and tugged down the arms. She bent over and dry-heaved into the toilet, every inch of her straining to get rid of this heavy emptiness.
She wanted to scream at the world. At god? At the fates? At whoever was in charge of life’s miseries? She wanted to scream to whomever might be listening about how unfair this was. How she had suffered for so many years, body blow after body blow, and deserved better than this.
How even after she’d found happiness, she delayed it. Delayed it for over a decade. And now, just as she and Davis were making plans to leave, as she was preparing to open wide her arms to complete and total happiness, it was stolen away from her.
He was everything to her.
