The Promise

7:00 a.m. / She slept soundly while the early morning light kissed the creases of her angelic face, tracing shadows along her slender back and waist. Curled around her nimble body, the white linen sheets drew around her like creased angel wings. She twitched, and a gentle plume of fine dust gently spread, clearly visible like angel dust shimmering in the morning light.

A moment later, a rap-tap-tapping punctuated the morning stillness. Her cellphone rang. The angel gently opened her eyes, revealing hazel brown eyes, trying to shake the drowsiness away. She reached for it under her pillow, turned, exposing her long thighs that bounced the morning rays. She lifted the receiver and answered in a soft gentle voice, "Yes, hello?"

"How have you been? This is me." Upon hearing it, she suddenly sat up on her bed, the linen almost falling, half-exposing her half naked torso. It was him. Unmistakably. No one else had such rich dulcet tones. His voice she had not heard for a really long time. A voice she wished she would never hear.

No words came out from her, as her throat suddenly went dry, her tongue sticking to the top of her mouth. "Hello? Are you still there?" the man asked. Realizing that she hasn’t said a word, she summoned enough willpower to answer, "Yes, I am. It's been a while." They talked like this for a few more minutes. Always vague references to past events. After she had hung up, her movements became brisk, purposeful. She got up, showered and dressed in her usual jeans and blouse. Before she left for work, she checked on something in her dresser. She opened a silver box, and took a peek inside. “It’s still there,” she thought, and went straight to work.

During the conversation, they agreed to meet by their favorite coffee shop at 7 pm to catch up on old times. It had been ten years since they last saw each other on that faithful day they broke up. “Promise me,” he said. She nodded, and he turned and left her…the rain falling all’ round, mixing with the warm tears from her bright eyes.

She tried to banish all the thoughts of him from her mind. She still couldn't concentrate on her job and kept thinking of what's going to happen when both of their eyes met again after all those years. Hours passed by so quickly and it was already six in the evening. She left one last look at her work and said her daily goodbyes to her workmates and left hurriedly in her silver Mazda 3, straight to the coffee shop. She arrived ten minutes before seven. “Just enough time for me to relax, and collect my thoughts” she said to herself. But to her surprise, he was already there.

The shop owner, a long time friend, told her he was there 30 minutes early for their agreed meeting. Of course, she was touched terribly and went straight to the table where he was sitting for half an hour.

With an apologetic smile, she said, "Hi. I'm sorry you waited long." Immediately, he smiled and replied, "Hello. It's been a while. Don't worry about it. I know you're busy and you aren't even late." "Still-" she replied finding something else to start a conversation. A few minutes of silence passed between them until he broke it with an offer of something to eat. “Steak. T-bone. Medium-well.” He said. “Your favorite…it’s not healthy for you.” She said. He smiled at her gently, “It shouldn’t matter now, should it?” he asked. “I guess.” She answered, forcing a smile.

They spent hours catching up with each other until finally, all the customers have left. The store owner started to turn the tables, and smiled at them as if to politely say, “lovers, move your business elsewhere.” They smiled in turn and left for another place – They didn’t even have to plan, they knew exactly where they were going - her pad.

She offered her car and he offered to drive it to her place as both of them agreed. It started to rain even while they were still in the café. In the car, the rain reminded her of the night they last met. How fitting, she thought, that it should rain today as well.

As they drove, they pointed at streets they used to walk down together, and the places they used to go to. Everything from their past came rushing through. The happiness they spent together, the troubles they went through, their dreams, their hopes and their pains. All of their feelings went back as if their life's VCR were momentarily on rewind.

The drive lasted almost forever. At last, they arrived at her place. “Make yourself comfortable,” she said. “I’ll try. I have not been for so long,” he said. “I know,” she answered, as she disappeared to the bedroom. She went to the dresser to retrieve her precious box, opened it, and gently palmed it in her right hand. She went to the kitchen and offered him a drink. Brandy, his favorite. She stepped into the living room, and as she emerged, he looked at the scotch in her left hand, and smiled. He looked at her right hand, and nodded knowingly…forcing a smile on his lips. He took the drink and sipped slowly. Both of them stared at the rain slowly dripping on the window for a while, as she filled his glass again. "It was a rainy night like this to, was it not?" She said, still staring at the window, breaking the silence between them. Unsurprised, he looked at her for a moment and replied, "Yes..." And he turned his face down. She stared at him for a few seconds, the light from the street glowed dimly as it hit his face revealing lines that were not there before. Time has not been kind she thought. Just then, even without her consciously thinking, she touched his face, caressed it gently. Her hand then went down and took the glass of scotch from him. Her lips gently touched that cold glass as the red blood liquid rushed down her dry throat. "It's good isn’t it?" She said. "I brought it home the last time I went to Europe." She added. He smiled, and faced her again, took the drink from her and replied, "Yes. It is." She looked at him, not uttering anything. He held her right hand and softly whispered, "I'm sorry." She, in return, held and again caressed his face and gently pulled him to her lips, closed her eyes and finally, kissed his warm lips as he wrapped his free arm around her tightly.

She felt a sudden jerk, and she felt warm tears – hers – trickle down her face.

They stayed locked like this for minutes, his warm lips slowly turned cold as the once reddish color turned blue. The glass of scotch fell and broke on the floor behind her. She opened her eyes and broke away from his embrace. His face was now ashen, a pale blue illuminated by the anemic light from the streets below. She looked at her hands, blood stained, numb and warm from the rich velvet fluid from the wound in his chest. With lips trembling, she held his face, and said with a cracking voice “I kept my promise…” He looked at her, his eyes without condemnation and whispered, "Yes, thank you. And I'm sorry." as he slowly closed his eyes, the last picture he saw was her angelic face in blood and tears.

An edited version of Let It Rain - Chapter 3: Promise