Trio Maxwell-Chang (trio) wrote in fictionaltrio, @ 2007-08-08 16:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | ethan, karen, original, threefold element |
[Original] Threefold Element: One Day's Grace
Title: One Day's Grace
'Fandom': Threefold Element
Claim: General
Prompt: 080. Why?
Word Count: 614
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Ethan reflects on his breakup with Karen.
Author's Notes: Threefold Element is heading into a fantasy genre, and is currently something of a drama genre.
"I am not as I have been."
Shakespeare's Benedick said that to his companions to explain his sudden turn from anti-marriage to marriage. He was a fool, a sharp-witted sort of jester whose tongue I marvelled at, but his initial blindness toward the thought of such a commitment always made me frown.
How appropriate, now, that I should think of the words of a fool, when I am most certainly one myself?
Ethan stared at the phone, one hand lifting to rake through his brown hair as he watched it. As with every other time, the sharp ringing cut off after four, clearly just in time to avoid the answering service. After three days of it, Ethan was well-used to the rhythm. Another day, and Karen would get fed up, coming to bang on the door until he finally gave in and opened for her. But that was four days' grace to work out just why he'd called to tell her it was over. Because even he wasn't really certain of his reasons.
For now, he sighed, turning the ringer down another notch before moving to flop down on the couch. He didn't bother with the book laying on a cushion beside him, its spine already cracking from being left open like that. And his hand strayed to his chest instead of to the television remote on the coffee table to his right. He rubbed his chest absently, wondering if the ache inside was regret. Somehow, he doubted it was. He felt too relieved to really regret the decision, after all.
Karen Appleby was a wonderful woman, full of bright ideas and ready smiles for him. She was stubborn, laughing often that he needed that stubbornness in her to counter his own. She was beautiful, with long brown hair that waved and curled, picking up glints of gold in sunlight, and deep chocolate doe-eyes. His parents had loved her. He had loved her. But somehow, he couldn't actually marry her.
The decision had come over a weekend away, the two of them sitting on the porch in a beachhouse overlooking the way the sunset turned the waves into glittering piles of rubies and amethysts, and she'd leaned up against him, her head on his shoulder. They sat like that often before, tucked close together in silence, and he lifted his wineglass, holding it up so that the sun was briefly overlayed with pink. And he'd sipped, the lightly sweet flavor less a focus than the feel of Karen's breast pressing against his arm, or the way her hair tickled the back of his shoulder. It had occurred to him, at that moment, that sitting like that would be an excellent way to spend the remainder of their lives, and that's when the pain had started.
There was no bright flash in his chest. There was only a faint ache, throbbing dully alongside his pulse. He'd paid no real attention to it that night, assuming that it was simply pain he hadn't noticed. The next morning, as they packed to head back home, it was stronger. And by the time they kissed goodbye at her doorstep, it was too much to ignore.
The pain hadn't eased even when he'd called to leave a message at her home the next day, ensuring she was at work before telling her that it was over. They had to break up. He still wasn't sure what had possessed him to make the call, though he knew all too well that it was his coward's heart that made it during the day, when she couldn't talk him out of it. And now all that was left was one day's grace.