Vibrant

"Thank you for all your hard work today. It was a good suggestion to promote my new menu items at the very first restaurant that opened rather than the newer ones, Eliza. Go home and get some rest. Tomorrow is another battle." Sharonda said proudly, giving Eliza a pat on the shoulder and waved as the remaining workers left out the front door. She lowered her hand and gave a relieved sigh before moving to the door to lock it. She rested her hand on the knob for a brief moment before turning to glance back at where it all started, right here in this small restaurant with friends and family. She pulled out her vibrating phone and saw that the incoming call was from her husband. He was the last person she wanted to talk for the last few days.

"What do you want?" Sharonda snapped, sounding harsher than she intended.

"I'm coming in. I just brought back the food truck that Ned told me to bring back because he had to hurry home for dinner. Supposedly it's taco night at their place." Evan said, yanking open the back door and stepped into the cozy kitchen and made his way to the front of the restaurant. He stopped when he saw Sharonda standing across from him with her phone still against her ear.

"I didn't say you could come in, get out." She growled, storming over to Evan angrily and started shoving him towards the doors. Evan kept his gaze focused on Sharonda as she came up to him and admired how beautiful she was despite the salt and pepper hair, the wrinkles on her face, the fierceness in her eyes that had never ceased for a moment in the last thirty plus years. He held his breath and caught her hand with his firmly and pulled her over to the wall where their family photo collage hung shaped like a tree with photos from when they were babies to school years to marriage to their children and their families.

"When will your hotheadedness simmer down for a minute? When will you ever stop holding grudges for so long, Ron Ron? Can't we just enjoy a brief moment of peace without you trying to bite my head off for the last two years? Can't we return to how we once were?" Evan asked, trying to pull her into a hug. Sharonda scolded and gave him a shove, causing Evan to fall into the table behind him. She hadn't meant to shove him so hard but for the last two years he had been unreasonable and inflexible with her on every matter. Sometimes, she wondered if it was because they've both rebounded back to the mindset of their teen years. Fierce and headstrong about opinions and believing they were right regardless of what others said.

"Well said, Evan. I have been asking the same thing from you for the last two years. When will you ever simmer down and let me win for once?" Evan stared at the woman he loved since he was sixteen and never once betrayed or allowed her pain to go unnoticed but this time he had enough of her stubbornness that was fiercer than an ox. He loved her for that fierceness in her but also hated when he had to deal with it. He watched her cry, struggle, hurt, and fight for her dream to become reality. She always claimed he didn't understand her passion and dream but he did better than anyone else. If her sons didn't understand her, Evan would because they had worked towards her dream together for half their lives hand in hand. There was only one thing he never understood and probably never would.

"I've always allowed you to win and have always fought every battle right next to you to assure victory, Sharonda. What I suggested before was not out of line or wrong? We are no longer the teens that fell in love with each other nor are we the young adults in our early twenties. We've reached old age whether you want to accept that or not, Sharonda. We've reached the age where it's time to let go of dreams that have been fulfilled, ambitions that have been reached, and hunger for recognition that has been satisfied. Everything has been fulfilled. We have three great sons that have families of their own and are more than able to take over our business. What else are you worried about that you can't let go of? Tell me, Ron Ron." Evan said softly, resting a hand on his heart as he gazed into the face of the woman he loved so much, claimed to know so well but felt so far away from at that moment with a glisten of pain in his golden hued eyes. He let out a heavy sigh and moved forward to Sharonda, hesitating before resting his hands gently on her shoulders that had carried so much in this life.