Just for Tonight (2021 Watty's Winner)

Prologue

Two Years Ago

4:46 p.m.

On the day of her father's funeral, Scarlett wore a red dress.

Her mother wept, her siblings mourned, and Scarlett wore a red dress.

Her father told her his favorite color was this perfect shade of red because it reminded him of her mother's once cherry-lipped smile. His favorite memories consisted of those cherry-lips. He told Scarlett how he could remember the way her lips looked when she said she loved him for the first time, when she vowed "until death do we part", when she told him she was pregnant, and when she said their final goodbye in the hospital.

So, she wore red.

Hours later, Scarlett stood on the sand, feeling the small grains wedge themselves between her toes. Her dress whipped wildly in the wind along with her hair. She didn't bother to hold her dress down, decency be damned. No one was around to care. Her dark hair flew around and covered her eyes, and only a few times did she bother to brush it away. At the beginning of this day, her hair was perfectly curled, and her makeup had made her look alive again.

Now, she stood with her hair an unruly mess, and her cheeks stained with black mascara. The icy water graced her toes, sending a shiver up her spine. The water would occasionally spray up at her when a particularly powerful wave would hit the shore.

She was driving back to her university when she decided on a detour. The wind raged above- the beginning of a storm was hinted all around her. But for now, it was just the crisp wind making the ferocious waves crash against the shore. No rain, no lightning. These were her favorite days to go to the beach. When a foggy overcast loomed over the ocean and the waves showed no mercy. There was something eerie about the sight but with a certain elegance to it that made her feel at peace.

Scarlett stared at the ocean in utter exhaustion. In the past few weeks, she felt more emotions than she thought possible. She had been able to narrow it down to two words: hurt and anger. Such simple words that didn't seem fitting for the pain it caused. How does one describe the feeling of seeing your father's dead body? Of being the cause of that?

She looked at the ocean and knew it understood.

And with that, Scarlett turned back and walked to her car.