Drabble 2

I felt the smack before I saw it coming.

Had I brought it on myself?

I can’t remember how it happened, but one minute we were laughing and the next…I was running down the wet street, holding my cheek. I remember wondering if the dampness on my face was from the falling mist or from…oh God. Blood.

He loved me. I know he did. He said so a million times.

For the last five days, he poured his heart and soul into his apologies on the messages he left. If that wasn’t enough, the flowers that littered my apartment testified to that.

I briefly examined my cheek in the mirror as I passed it. A little purple, some yellow now - my lip and cheek were almost healed.

I sat by my window watching the summer afternoon morph into dusk. All I wanted was to rewind the clock. We’d been happy before, never more in love.

It was an all-consuming love; the kind of love I’d read about where the man lives his life for his girl – just like my man had. I considered myself so lucky. He gave me the world; done everything for me even down to choosing the tops and skirts he liked best on me. With him I never felt more desired and, now, without him, never more alone. How would I go on?

I heard the phone ring yet again, and again the war raged inside me – answer it? Don’t answer it?

I watched the families play on the street below – it’s what I wanted: to have a family with a man I loved. I deserved it, didn’t I?

“Hello?”

“Beth! Oh God, Beth! Please…please let me see you. I need to explain. I’ve been lost without--”

“Okay,” I whispered, consumed once again.