The Ring

TWENTY SEVEN

[RAPHAEL'S POV]

I watch Ingrid laugh out loud when she misses the stuffed animal she's supposed to shoot in a booth with a toy gun to earn a beautiful teddy bear.

"Your target is really bad." I say, with a teasing smile.

"Well, I almost hit the shot." she says. defensively. Then she stretches the toy gun towards me. "Here. Let's see you try. Three bullets left."

I  take the gun, feeling a little confident. Then I bend over and aim at the target giraffe. I shoot and miss. She grins teasingly at me. I shoot for the second time and miss again.

"Your last chance. Do it for the bear." she pats me gently on the back. I quiver a little bit when she does that. I aim again and shoot, and lo and behold, the freaking target giraffe goes down. I take the bright red teddy bear from the shop keeper and offer it to her.

She stares at me and shakes her head. "You earned it. You should keep it."

I smile and nod at her. We had a lot of fun tonight at the amusement park. We took a pendulum ride, the carousel, and the Ferris wheel. I felt sick at the end, but it was still good. I don't remember feeling this less frustrated. All the things we did reminded me of my childhood days with Camila. I was very grateful.

"Are you hungry?" she asks me, taking my large hand into her soft elfin ones. Her presence is really comforting.

"I guess so."

She suddenly looks grim. "You haven't eaten the whole day except for the bacon. Wanna go to that restaurant?"

"Okay." I agree. The restaurant is right across the street from the amusement park. We walk hand in hand into the beautiful restaurant and choose a secluded booth to sit in. We place our orders and sit there in silence as we wait.

Ingrid bows her head and drums the table with her fingers. I suddenly remember that I've not asked about she and Adrian. I had cried on her non stop about my issues that I forgotten about her.

"You haven't told me why you came back." I break the silence.

"Oh." she raises her head, and tucks a strand of her glossy hair behind her ear. "Um, I went back to the house for a reconciliation and I found him with Sophie. They were fucking." she chuckles humorlessly at the last sentence.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"I guess we're in the same boat now." she smiles. "I was in a shitty mood at first, but when I saw you and how you were feeling, I realised that it's just better to forget about it. Sometimes in life, you may think your problems are big until you meet people with bigger ones."

We're interrupted by the waiter who comes with our orders.

"Thank you for everything. Thanks for being around." I tell her. I could see the sadness in her eyes as she looks at me.

"I knew I didn't want to go back to Adrian. I felt it. After all that has happened, I realised I don't want to turn back. Nothing has changed. He wants to love me but he can't." she shakes her head. "He was forcing it. Really hard. He felt he'd hurt me so much so he needed to pay me or something. I guess that's why he wanted to marry me."

"You can't force love. And you can't force love out of someone." I say.

"I guess I tried too hard, you know?" she wipes a falling tear. "I was hurting myself. I tried so hard, and look where it brought me. It took just a little separation for him to go running back to Sophie. I was only gone for a day or two."