A Love Lost

Reece had told herself she would finish the painting by the end of the year.

It was now December and she hadn't picked up a paintbrush in months. She couldn't bring herself to knowing that he wasn't here anymore.

Dried paint in a myriad of colours clung to a once stark white canvas in the corner of her office. The canvas stood at head height, spreading out length ways, filling her entire arms width.

After a week of having done no work, Reece had shoved the easel into a corner and draped an old, off-white bed sheet over it.

If she couldn't see it then she could forget about it.

But it just wasn't true. The half finished painting was always there in the corner of her mind, haunting her thoughts and intruding on her dreams. Along with him.

~~~

His eyes had been glued to her for most of the night.

The way she laughed with her friends when one said something funny, she'd tip her heading back, showing off her pearly white teeth.

The way she'd wave her hand in front of the bartender, determined to gain his attention so she wouldn't be waiting around for another drink.

The way she'd talk loudly, so her friends could hear her over the busy bar and the deafening music.

Straining his eyes in the dim room was giving him a headache, but he didn't care.

As long as he could look at her.

~~~

Another dream had woken her up, grasping onto her shoulders and shaking her awake.

She hated it.

When she was asleep, she could be with him.

Awake, she was alone, in a cold, empty, king-sized bed.

Reece knew she should've gotten rid of it. One person didn't need such a big bed. The space around her consumed her. Reece didn't notice tears. She never noticed them anymore.

She was surprised she could even still cry after all the tears she had shed.

~~~

The bar was still as dim as ever. James had had headaches for weeks after that night.

The night he couldn't take his eyes off his fiancé.

The night they first met.

Or his soon-to-be fiancé. Hopefully.

His palms were sweaty. Taking his right one out of his pocket, he wiped it in his jeans before reaching straight back into his pocket, just to make sure the small, black box that he had spent a fortune on, was still there.

God was he terrified.

He turned to his companion, her sparkly, blue eyes glinting at him from across the table.

He knew this wouldn't be the most romantic way to propose, in a bar on a Tuesday evening, but he cherished this bar.

For it he hadn't found the courage to talk to Reece that night, he may have never met the love of his life.

"What are you looking at me like that for?" Reece interrupted his thoughts, bringing him back to his reality.

"Like what?"

"All dreamy-like. You look like you're in your own little world over there."

"Me?" He questioned, feigning surprise.

"Yes you." She giggles, a contagious smile spreading across her face and onto his.

The look they shared was one of a kind.

This is it, James thought, it's now or never.

~~~

Bare feet pattered against the hardwood floor.

Sleep was escaping Reece, like it did so often these days. She found herself wondering around her empty house, with her empty head and her empty heart.

Memories flooded through her mind of the times before.

~~~

He ran after her, through their new home and out into the back garden. Across the patio, until he caught her and knocked her down onto the freshly cut grass.

Laughs and giggles spluttered out of her mouth as she lay there, vulnerable to him.

"I love you, Reece."

She loved him too.

~~~

She found herself in the office, facing her abandoned painting.

It was him who believed in her. Together they set the goal of finishing it before the end of the year.

But without him, Reece had lost herself, lost all hope.

~~~

Tears ran down her face as she sat at his side.

Helpless.

He had shaved his hair before it got the chance to fall out. That was when reality had settled in.

"Don't cry, Reece." He said. "I'll be fine, you'll see."

He wasn't.

~~~

Anger overwhelmed Reece.

In that moment she was angry at the world, at James, at herself.

If there was a God, how could he do this to her?

How could James do this to her? How could he leave her alone?

Reece ripped the old, tattered bedsheet away from the painting. She plunged her hand through the unfinished piece, tearing through the canvas, destroying it forever.

~~~

I'm sorry.

~~~

When Reece heard the voice, she knew it was him.

Her tears rolled down her cheeks faster than they had before as she looked down at the mess she had made.

Suddenly, as if compelled by an invisible force around her, Reece marched towards her supply closet and ripped open the packaging of a new canvas, tearing off the plastic wrap.

She placed it on the easel and got started on the vision she had in her mind.

And once she started, she didn't stop. Reece brought packets of crisps to sustain her when she grew hungry and would drink water from the tap when she needed it.

She would take a nap every few hours but was never away from her easel for too long.

Her inspiration whirled around her, guiding her hand.

Her back screamed at her, her neck bent out of shape.

Her hand ached from holding the paint brush.

But she didn't stop.

When she was done, her grief had been healed slightly.

She called it, A Love Lost.

Word count: 968