I smiled at Ryan as he ran around the car to hop inside the driver’s side. I had told him so many times he didn’t have to hold a door for me anymore. That we had known each other long enough to be out of that stage where we expected the small things from each other that people dating did. But he always insisted because that’s who Ryan was.
He liked the small things.
They were what made him tick. He even still picked lint off my shirt and pulled me into his arms while watching a movie, even after so long.
He was the type who would get up to close the curtains for me when I forgot, or refill my drink before I even needed to ask. He reminded me to take my multivitamin every morning, and he knew what I wanted from the coffee shop before he knew what he would order.
He was incontrovertibly perfect.
I gulped deeply nervous because I would make the biggest step of my life today.
It wasn’t because I was marrying him. That was inevitable. What someone else would call a giant leap, for us, it felt like a small step. Both of us agreed we were practically married already and had been since I was eighteen and moved into his condo.
But today I would be romantic and sweet.
Today I would sweep him off his feet.
And, I could hardly wrap my head around it!
“Are you okay?”
“Mina...”
“Mina...” I snapped out of it looked up at him and smiled.
“Ah, I’m fine. Just thinking.” I said, my voice warm and sweet.
He smiled sweetly. “Are you sure? Did I upset you back there? It’s my big mouth. I always say the wrong thing at the wrong time.” He paused pouting a bit.
“Tonight is our fourth anniversary. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“It’s fine Ry It’s nothing, okay. Trust me. Nothing’s wrong. Everything is perfect.” I smiled at him and meant every word.
He visibly relaxed and started the car, backed out, then pulled out of the little underground parking lot of our small condo.
He drove down the road, and I held my hand on his thigh like I always did when he drove. The soft rain pattered on the top of the car roof, the water soothed my nerves. And the only sound that broke the steady fall of the rain, the automatic wipers pushing the water lulled me along with our own breathing.
His big blue eyes looked out the car window concentrating on the road intently and my fingers itched to run my hands through his dark curly hair, as they always did when I was happy and comfortable.
“Don’t even think, of doing what your thinking, babe. The hair is off-limits while I am driving.” He hissed playfully warning me away.
I smiled, sheepishly looking down at the ground.
“I wish they would fix these roads already,” he said. I looked up at him and nodded, despite knowing he probably couldn’t tell I was doing so.
“I know they have been talking about it for the past two years now. And nothing has come of it. Dumb politicians.” I commented.
“Hey, be careful, that’s Dad, you’re talking about.” He smiled.
I chuckled. “I know, I know,” I said and reached out to touch the back of his neck stroking it the way he liked.
I looked out the window, the city lights twinkled in the dark azure and midnight blue sky. The slight twinges of purple told me it had gotten well past seven and was probably much closer to a quarter after eight or half-past the hour.
I didn’t want my nervousness to show, but I knew our reservations were for nine, and I also knew how bad the traffic was right now. The cars lined up straight rows past either window at every stoplight, and there was obvious back up at large intersections.
“I’m sorry I checked the weather they said a light drizzle on the news,” I said.
The rain... The rain continued to keep pouring, heavier than before, as if the whole city and even the skies were working hard against my grandiose plan.
I chewed on my lip nervously and picked at my fingers my hands folded in my lap nervously.
‘How could this, how could this happen? I had planned for traffic… But the weather had made it worse? How could you not plan for this… Ah, Mina…’
“It’s okay, we will make it in time.” Ryan’s voice broke the human silence that filled the air, horns honking, rain and nothing else.
I stared at him. My deep brown eyes boring into the side of his head in both shock and awe.
‘How did he do that? How did he always know what I was thinking?’
The light turned green, and I smiled up at him. He pressed the gas.
"What? Why are you looking at me like...." He turned to me for one split second; just a moment frozen in time between the two of us.
It was only one second that he stared with his beautiful blue eyes into mine.
There was a blinding light that flared up into my eyes, and I heard brakes screeching through the dead silence.
And my smile disappeared as a scream of sheer terror ripped from my throat.
My entire world spun. I felt my top half feel as if it was tearing away from the bottom. My lungs heaved to pull in air through the seatbelt and tears streamed down my cheeks from the crippling fear that caused my heart to beat in the back of my skull and eyes.
The car twisted around me as if made from flimsy plastic instead of metal. The small bits of garbage and Ryan’s favorite coffee cup tumbled through the air. Shards of glass flew, I felt the terror as one logged into my skin, just below my left bicep near my elbow.
It was like the entire world had slowed, as I watched it break crumble and deform, and then my head flew forward and to the side.
My world went black
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