It was Tuesday morning in July. For a unknown reason she felt like putting on her purple shoes that she did not wear for some time, maybe for several years. As she put her left foot into the corresponding shoe, she understood why she felt like wanting to wear that pair of shoes. Inside the left shoe there was something that tickled her foot, so she removed her foot and turned the show face down. A little rhomb-shaped earring fell down the shoe and she remembered.
Her eyes filled with tears right in the moment when she lifted up the earring from her hot floor and she remained kneeling down, while her expression was blocked in sadness. She remembered how two years ago, in the same Tuesday morning of July, she decided to break up with him because she felt stuck in a relationship that was going nowhere. She informed him about her decision immediately as he woke up. At that time, she could not read any gesture on his expression, she could not see how shocked he was.
“We need to understand what we really want in life. As for me, this does not seem to be what I want for myself. This is going nowhere, I feel that I am wasting your time and mine and this is not fair for either of us.”
“I did not know you felt this way. I am going to give you some space and go out of your way for a while. In a week I will come back to pack my things and if by then you still feel the same I will be out of your life completely”. These were his words, as she remembered them crystal clear. As he closed the door on his way out, she felt relieved. But soon, this relaxation turned to an incomprehensible negative excitement, nervousness and despair. She began cleaning the house, in order to clear her thoughts and as she reached her office, next to the lamp that she used when she was writing, she found two black dots placed on a white paper. “No reason at all for telling you how special you are for me. I love you”, signed Rob. She used to wear similar earrings like the one Rob gave her that morning, but she lost them while they were together on a holiday in Spain. Although they were not precious, she loved the earrings. He remembered that and bought her other, resembling earrings, several months after she lost the old ones.
She started to have serious second thoughts about her decision of breaking up with Rob. However, she considered that she did the right thing. Besides, she did not want to seem desperate and needy or inconsistent with her decision. So she hid the earrings in a shoe and put the pair away, for not feeling tempted to call him. She continued her week, going and coming back from the office, with a tasteless sensation, as if something was missing from her life. She felt incomplete. She had no one to share her dreams with, she had nobody to wait for her as she descended from the subway. She started to miss Rob’s hand in hers as they were walking silently towards home. She wanted to tell him that her presentation for which she worked day and night the week before was a success. She wanted to tell him that she plans to visit her parents and to ask him to accompany her this time, to meet them. She wanted to tell him that she made a mistake and that she wants him back. She wanted to listen to him talking about his attitude against the big constructions companies that targeted green areas for replacing them with grey buildings. She wanted to know how his lobby campaign against such a project works.
So she called him and asked him to meet her, seven day after she told him that she no longer wants to be with him. She thought to herself that she was going to go crazy if another day comes by and she hears nothing from him. So knowing that he was going to come to straight things out between them, she contacted him first.
Darrin, his friend responded to his call.
“Hi, Margo”, Darrin said with a low, weepy voice.
“Hi. Darrin, is this you? Is Rob around? I’d like to speak to him”, she said.
“Margo, where are you?”, asked Darrin with the same blue and serious voice.
“I’m at home. Rob supposed to pass by today. I guess he told you there was a little issue between us and we need to talk. So, please tell him that I am at home and I am waiting for him to come, would you?”
“Margo”, said Darrin hopelessly and then he paused for a long time, without finishing his sentence. As if he would have telepathically transmitted her what he was about to say, Margo felt that she could not stand on her feet and she felt her face turning black.
“What, Darrin?”, she asked calmly and gravely.
“I’m sorry. Rob is dead”
It turned out that he was hit by a car, while he was on his way to the City Hall to obtain the last signature, needed for stopping the construction firm to destroy the green area where a new residential project was to be built.
As she looked by the window, she saw the pain that she endured for not having him in his life, the sadness she still sensed for not being able to tell him that she loved him, but she also saw the green tall trees still standing in the city’s green area from nearby her house. She swallowed her tears away and smiled, remembering how he succeeded to bring down a corrupt system as he always wanted. She stood up as she remembered she was loved by an upright and passionate man, who listened to her stories, her dreams, and her plans with kindness and support. She put on the black rhomb-shaped earrings in her ears, still feeling loved by him.
