Untitled Short Story

Why does time always seem to stand still when we’re waiting for something? It’s freezing out here. I’ve been standing in this blizzard for hours it seems. I would have been much happier if Cameron had consented to meet me in the bar, but he refuses to walk back into that place again.

I turn my head left and right, looking up and down the street and I finally I see him. Being the impatient person I am I head his way tromping through a foot of snow. Before we met he reaches into his pocket and pulls something out. He stops a foot or so short of me and extends his hand. In it he’s holding something wrapped in a purple velvet napkin.

I smile as I ask, “Scared Cameron?”

“I’d just like to keep my distance is all,” he says as his eyes attempt to meet mine but flicker away quickly.

As I take the napkin he’s holding out to me his whole body begins to shimmer and then he’s gone leaving nothing but empty space where he was standing.

I can’t help but grin as I turn back towards the bar. Cameron always does that, just to rub it in. Entering the dark bar I run my hands along the edges of the napkin that Cameron has just given me. I haven’t felt that shape in years.

"That took forever," Boratu says as I sit down in my usual stool at the bar.

"It's Cameron, he always makes me wait too long," I say with a shrug.

Boratu slides a drink my way then reaches across the bar to snatch the napkin from me. I pull my hand back before he even lays a finger on it.

"Nice try, but you're far too slow for me," I say grinning at him.

Laughing he says, "I had to try didn't I?" He looks around the bar and then back to me. "Open it already," he says and I can see his hands shaking.

Mine are too.

When I unfold the velvet napkin I let out a moan of longing and relief. It has been too long since I've seen that beautiful cobalt blue stone. My fingers tremble as I run one along the symbol engraved into the stone. It looks like the symbol for Cancer in the Zodiac but it means so much more than that. Especially to me. I remember the first time I saw it and it still gives me the chills to look at it.

Boratu reaches across the bar and puts his hand on mine. "You have it again Fortula, that's all that matters."

Nodding and taking a deep breath I look up at him. “I just can’t believe it.”

I feel the pulse of his thoughts come to me. I know sweetheart, I know.

Of course he does, he knows better than anybody.

******