Watching Florian Eads and Finley Symmes sitting next to each other on the old faded green park bench was an extremely painful sight. From an outsiders perspective, it looked as if they had never met before. The space between them was stagnated, and a whole other person could have sat in between them. It was as if the space was calling for a stranger to come and divide the two even further apart and rescue them from each other.
However, for Florian, he felt as though the bench was not small enough. The space between him and Finley drove him insane. He felt as though a hoard of ants had decided to make his jeans their home, making it impossible to keep his legs still. The air was hot and dry, not even the cool breeze helped to cool him down. He knew he was sweating like a pig, but he did not care. He had one chance to redeem himself, and he could not mess it up. Florian watched has Finley twisted her index ring like a broken doorknob. He could tell she was avoiding eye contact with him… and he understood why… For he knew the moment she looked him in the eyes… she would (most likely) forgive him.
For Finley, she felt as though the park bench was too small. She felt the splinters stabbing her thighs through her mint green linen romper. She wanted to move her legs but she feared any movement would excite Florian. The breeze was too hot, yet somehow too cold on her skin. She felt the sweat from the hot summers day trickling down her neck, causing a chill to run down her spine. And that chill caused goosebumps to grow in her skin and her hairs to stand tall as trees. She could tell her straw fedora wanted to escape with the breeze, and she had a hard time deciding if she wanted to hold her hat to her head or fiddle with her ring. Finley decided to twist the ring so that if the hat flew away, it was the perfect escape. She rapidly twisted the ring on her index finger as if it was the key to her escape. She avoided looking at Florian at all costs… because she knew if she looked into his dark chocolate eyes, she would fall in love with him again.
“Fin… if you could go back in time and do it all over again… would you?” Florian finally asked her in his deep rich voice. She was shocked by the question, yet she somehow had seen it coming. She had thought of this question a lot over the past several years. Would she take it all back if she could? Finley looked away from her ring and out to the park before her. She spotted her children Fifer, Fable, Frost, Ferris, Field, and Fergus. The six of them were playing without a care in the world, and Finley dreamed she could join them.
“I wish we could go back and tell us not to name our kids the way we did,” said in a monotone, as to not mislead Florian with what intentions she has. “I mean, what were we thinking? Who names their child Fergus?”
“I am being serious Fin… if you could… would you take it back?” he asked again, with the sound of sorrow in his voice. Finley watched each one of her kids. Deep in her heart, she knew what she wanted to say… but she did not know if she had the courage to say it.
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