Digby Beaumont
Let's Never Be Apart
He’s sitting alone in the lounge of the Holiday Inn, picking at his autumn salad, when he sees her at the bar staring in his direction. He turns to check behind him, but there is no-one there. The place is pretty dead. When he looks back, she’s making her way over to his table.
“Dean? Oh, my god. Dean, it is you.”
Mid-thirties maybe, petite, with an open face and cropped black hair, she’s wearing a dark, business suit. He clears his throat. He tries to tell her, no, she’s mistaken. But she doesn’t stop talking.
“How are you? You’re looking great” She bends forward, kisses his cheek. “It must be fifteen—no, sixteen years. You know, you’ve hardly changed.”
She sits and gazes at him, eyes wide, eager. He envies this Dean she believes him to be. He tries to remember the last time a look like that was meant for him.
“What are you doing in town? Are you here on business?” She places her room key on the table. Is that significant? “So, you didn’t give it all up and become an organic farmer, after all?” She smiles, a big, toothy smile.
He smiles back, less sure, more a twitch of the lips. Give it all up? Organic farmer? It could have been him who said that. Easily. For a crazy moment he doubts who he is. Could she be right? Thinking it makes him feel lightheaded.
She lowers her voice. “I always knew we’d meet again.”
He wants to reach out and touch her cheek, tell her he still loves her, let’s never be apart. He can feel her heat. He pictures the two of them sharing Pinot Grigio then leaning into each other all the way up to her room.
The waitress re-appears. “Can I get you people something else?”
He turns to the woman. She fondles the stem of an unused wine glass, waiting for him to answer.
“Look, I’m sorry, but I’m not who you think I am.”
That isn’t what he comes out with; though he promises himself it will be. He’ll put her straight, of course he will. He isn’t a bad person. What else would he do? In the end there will be embarrassment, apologies, laughter even. Ha-ha, doesn’t life play tricks sometimes? Though not just yet. A second or two more is all he asks. He can’t be sure he will ever feel this alive again.