AQUIVER || Award-winning short stories about love won and lost

Lucky

I remember the first time her hand touched mine, her dark skin the perfect counterbalance to the white of my own.

What really blew me away was her shy smile. She looked up at me with those large eyes, and a smile nudged the corners of her full mouth.

For someone like me who's never experienced true affection, not even from a parent, the caress of her soft voice proved almost too much. Such intimacy amid the chaos of beeping sounds and chatter and rattling shopping carts.

Sonya.

From the moment I read the tag on her chest, her name was always on the tip of my tongue, waiting.

I kept coming back to hear more, see more of her.

The craving gnawed at my soul whenever we were apart. I couldn't resist her call for long.

In her room lit by the first light of day, I watch crimson bloom on skin dark as fertile earth.

Touching the scratches on my cheek, I look at Sonya one last time.

How could she pretend she didn't feel it, the connection we shared?

She knew me. She knew my soul. I don't understand why she acted as if I was a stranger when I showed up at her door last night.

Now we are over, and it hurts me more than I can say.

The pain is almost as visceral as the agony I felt when Mother betrayed me too, withheld her love from me one too many times.

Except she didn't fight quite as hard as Sonya did.

I walk into the tiny bathroom adjacent to the bedroom and clean my hands. The pink-stained water washes away the last of her down the porcelain bowl.

My mother taught me to clean up after myself in a series of painful lessons, and so I do. Once the house is immaculate, I step outside and breathe in the damp smell of fall leaves and pending rain.

The young woman walking her dog smiles at me in silent greeting. Her green eyes remind me of leafy forests and mint.

She stills when she catches a look of my scratched face.

"Sir, are you alright?" Her honeyed voice fills the cracks Sonya's betrayal has left in my heart with sweetness.

Mere moments ago, I'd been sure I lost love forever and now I've caught it by its coattails as it swirls in the eyes of a green-eyed nymph.

I'm a lucky bastard. Life is rewarding me for surviving Mother. I've been a good son, and now I finally get to experience true love.

"I'll be fine. Thank you," I murmur, flashing her my winning grin.

The kind smile she gifts me with in return fills the lonely place in my heart.

"What a gorgeous dog you have," I say as I crouch down and scratch him behind his fluffy ears. "Is he yours?"

Dogs are the way to any dog-loving owner's heart. She nods with a broad smile that bleeds into her eyes.

I already know I can't live without seeing it again.