Stupid Girl

They had been carrying on long distance for months. She could hardly believe fate had brought them back together after 30 years. Hours long conversations, email chats, endless texting and pictures---it was all so heady . It all seemed so right and possibly divine, she thought to herself.
However, the red flags showed up early on and she just chose to rationalize or ignore them altogether. In their first phone conversation he'd mused rather pathetically if she " had come to save him". By the second conversation he'd had tears burning down her cheeks for not agreeing with something he'd said. The signals were there screaming at her......still she ignored them. The laughter, the camaraderie they shared between them forced all of the bad stuff to the distant background. He'd been hurt too many times before she thought.
"It will be different for us, I am what he needs. We need each other. It will be like old times---we will finally have the chance at what was stolen from us years before."
Nothing was actually stolen from them, she reminded herself. He was simply married with a baby on the way and she was not even of legal age yet. She continued to shove off the facts.

                                                                         .....................

The plane landed right on time at the Florida airport as she composed herself and checked her make-up, hair and outfit several times. She chose an outfit that suited her perfectly--cropped khaki's, expensive black suede wedges, a black and white striped french t-shirt, a black military style jacket and a vintage lace scarf thrown loosely around her neck.
The outfit and her appearance had garnered her a free lunch, delightful conversation and a few glasses of wine bought by a tall, handsome off-duty Massachusetts State Trooper on his way to a week of surfing and fun with friends. He'd asked where she was going , so she told him the story during the 2 hour layover in Atlanta.
He scoffed after she'd admitted she was the one who'd had to pay for the plane tickets in order to spend a long weekend with him. The handsome off duty trooper sat beside her for the connecting flight to Tampa and offered the number where he could be reached should anything go wrong.



                                                                                                              CJ Ellis
                                                                                                              short story prequel

                                                                 
* Art by Loui Jover "Believe"