Garreth sat and watched as the young girl and her Mom played in the waves. She was probably not quite a teenager and she reminded him of Luna when she was that age. The whole scene was reminiscent of their days at the beach as a... family. He lowered his eyes to sadly stare at nothing in particular. How much things had changed in such a short period of time. He rubbed and held the back of his neck. It was mind boggling. Truly. Just last summer it had been he and Julia and Luna at the beach, together, as a family. Now his beautiful wife was gone, forever. And aside from periodic, short clandestine meetings he was separated from his daughter too. He'd gone from a family to an individual seemingly overnight and the weight of that was at times, at times like this, crushing.
Well, I could see why from a distance, just in general, those two would remind you of Luna and I, but honestly... that woman looks way better in a bathing suit then I ever did.
Very funny Jules. And no, no she does not... not that I was looking.
Oh, don't worry G. I'm not jealous. I'm much too dead to be jealous.
Garreth exhaled deeply.
She is cute though, isn't she? You should ask her out.
What?!? What are you talking about? I'm not asking her... I'm not asking anyone 'out'. Are you crazy?
Crazy? No. Dead? Yes. But you're not. Not dead that is. You're very much alive and very much alone and you could still be considered quite a catch really, if I do say so myself.
Garreth shook his head.
Not happening Jules. Not now, not ever.
C'mon honey. You're still a young-ish man. Please don't tell me that you're never going to entertain the idea of being with someone else. That's just ridiculous. And honestly, it makes me mad G! I mean, we talked about this very thing as a hypothetical situation years ago.
No Jules. You talked about it. I never agreed to anything.
Well, you know if our roles were reversed - heaven forbid - I'd be 'cougaring' my way through all the eligible middle-aged men.
Hahaha. Very funny Jules.
OK, ok. I don't know for sure what I'd do either. But please, please just promise me that you'll at least leave yourself open to the idea when or if the timing is right, or at least better. It wouldn't mean that you'd love me any less. It'd be like, you know, how adding children just adds to your capacity to love, or however it is that they say that.
Yea, since we only had one kid, I never really got that Jules. And besides, don't parents of multiple kids always at least secretly have a favorite?
Yea, you're probably right. And make no mistake about it... I'd always expect to be your favorite lover G. I mean, who's kidding who... like you'd ever find anyone better than me.
Look, if I promise to not completely close this door forever, that's all, can we please stop talking about it so I can go back to trying my best to enjoy this lovely day at the beach?
Deal.
Garreth gazed out at the horizon while making designs in the sand with his finger.
I do think that I should probably be having a lot less frequent conversations with my dead wife before I consider opening that door though. Just sayin'.
Ah, I dunno honey. Maybe it's a chicken or the egg kinda thing...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
YOU ARE READING
DISCONTINUED
Teen FictionCertainly they could trust that those in power ultimately had the best interests of the people in mind, right? ~~~ Luna slouched low in her seat, staring at droplets of water that ran diagonally down the window of the bus. The sky was a flat, depre...
