TILL DEATH DO US PART | JENLISA

SEVENTEEN

JENNIE

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Her New Year’s Resolution

December 31st, 2015

***

In another world, I didn’t have this night with Lisa.

I didn’t realize it until now, until I started stealing back more time from the rip of the universe, but we really fought a lot. I don’t remember what it was about, I never did remember the reasons we tore into one another, but we had gone our own ways for New Year’s Eve.

The car pulls up to the curb outside her apartment and I look out at the warm glow of the windows. Smiling up at them, I can’t help but hope that I’ll get to see her graduation as well, since another fight had stolen that from me too.

I can’t believe how many milestones I missed. It blows my mind.

When the driver opens the door for me, I tighten my coat warding away the chill as I step out into the snow. It stopped falling, so it feels colder as I fish into my purse and pull my phone free. For some reason I feel warmer in the light from the street lamp, so I stand in its halo, as I get my phone in my hand.

I really am sappy, because I touch the screen, and a picture of Lisa laughing pops up. It makes a smile tug my lips and I swipe the image away only to replace it with her contact listing. Everything Lisa, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
The line rings, and when it connects I glance up at her apartment again.

“Hi, sweetheart.” I can hear her smile through the phone.

“Hi, angel. I’m outside.”

“Okay, be down in a minute.”

“See you.”

My breath blossoms in the night as I wait, only to have it whisked away by the air a moment later. I stare at the stairwell she will walk down, until my eyes play tricks on me, until I swear I can see her. She doesn’t appear from the shadows though, so I know it’s just my imagination. She will be down any minute and my stomach knots in anticipation, hoping that she is surprised.

Hoping that she is happy.

I said we were going out to dinner before meeting up with our friends at a bar downtown, but I really hope that the limousine behind me gives a clue that this isn’t any ordinary date. Nope. This is the start to something I want to be magical. When I think that, I don’t mind that I’ll be eating Ramen for the next month to afford it, nor do I even feel the brisk rake of winter even though it pulls my hair around my face and into my eyes. I swipe the strands back and when I do, I see Lisa coming down the stairs. She slows at the bottom as she looks out at me and then trades the mottled shadow on the side of the building for the amber glow of the street light as she comes toward me.

I lose my breath, because she really is the most excruciatingly beautiful creature on the earth.

She comes toward me putting one foot in front of the other in a model walk I showed her for fun years ago. I grin when I see it, and her lips form a secret smile because she knows I know. I follow the swank black high heel boots up as they move, as her legs shift under the matte leather pants she wears.

Okay, leather pants. Seriously, she must be trying to kill me. They make her legs look so long, pliant, and toned as the light outlines every sinew, every cut of her dancer’s muscles and her lithe gate that seems set to music. I drag my eyes further, to where her peacoat is wrapping around her like a lover. The lover I wish I was for her. It shifts with the gentle curves of her hips and breasts.