Bronwyn Green

Please welcome our newest member, Sarah Moore! She’ll be taking part in the flash fiction and promptly penned posts. Now, back your your regularly scheduled story. 

 

It was only day five of their big European vacation–the one they’d scrimped and saved for for the last five years. Cammy adjusted her ponytail as it was coming loose, falling behind Derek’s long-legged pace. They were on yet another walking tour of another tiny French town. Well, it was less walking tour and more forced march.

So far, the trip wasn’t anything like what she’d envisioned. There were no long lingering glances, while sipping wine at sidewalk cafés. She hadn’t been able to lose herself in any of the works of art she’d been dying to see for as long as she could remember.

She hadn’t been particularly upset when they’d only taken a cursory peek at the Mona Lisa. She’d always thought it had been overrated, anyway. But she’d waited a lifetime to lose herself in The Church at Auvers. The vivid blues of falling night on Van Gogh’s canvases were like no other blues she’d ever seen. They were blues she wanted to fall into. To submerge herself in. To breathe.

But Derek had stood behind her, hands clasped, rocking slowly on the balls of his feet. It was the same thing he’d done at her mother’s funeral this past winter. She’d put it down to his discomfort with grief and emotional displays. But after the his behavior at the d’Orsay, she now wondered if he’d simply been bored. If her family’s loss had inconvenienced him.

She glanced at him. He’d moved even farther along the bridge, never noticing she wasn’t right behind him.Derek had been too impatient, always moving, always looking ahead to the next item on his list. The next goal to achieve. There never seemed to be even a moment where he took the time to enjoy the moment. To appreciate his accomplishments. To appreciate her.

Cammy smiled slightly at the couple walking toward her. Every so often, they’d lean close to together as they wandered, their heads nearly touching, their fingers grazing each other. She stifled a laugh. And Derek had only now realized she wasn’t with him. He stood, watching her–impatiently, if she had to guess–but she was too far away to tell.

He began rocking slowly on the balls of his feet, and she swallowed back the burning rush of tears. They might be crossing this bridge together, but she realized they were no longer headed in the same direction.

That’s it for me, this month. Be sure to check out the other bloggers’ stories. 

Sarah  *  Gwen  *  Siobhan