Tuesday's Tale - Picture prompt

 

The Tuesday's Tale picture prompt this month is so fitting for valentine's Day I decided to have a little poke at 'expectations'.  I have kept it beneath the 300 word limit ;-) (This is a short one-off story, quite unrelated to my current wip that I have been posting recently.)

 

She looked at the box, then at the man, and her heart turned over in her chest. Love, as warm and red as the gift-wrapping, and as bright as the silver ribbon, neatly topping it with a tidy bow, blazed in his eyes.

Could you fall in love at first sight? It felt like it to her, but could she trust the emotions swirling inside her?

The glow in his eyes dimmed, and her heart squeezed.

Two days, that’s all. They’d known each other for two days.

And in those two days, life had been full; wonderful, and filled with meaning… and joy.

Could she dismiss the magic they generated when they were together so causally? Should she?

She stared back at the box, then up at the man again.

The sound of waves lapping against the sun-kissed shore beat a gentle rhythm in her head. His hair the colour of a setting sun, and his eyes, she noticed again, were as blue as the summer sky. The glow in them had changed-to determination.

She half wished he’d coax her to take the box, but he remained silent, as still as a statue apart from his watchful gaze on her face.

Without warning the image of a door closing filled her mind.

No!

No, she refused to let the door close and snatched the gift out of his cupped hands.

Unaware of the breath backing up in her lungs, she tore at the wrapping and snapped up the lid and stared. A plastic bubblegum-pink ring lay on a black velvet bed.

With a gurgle of laughter, she lifted the ring from the box and handed it to him and watched him slide it on her finger.

“Just stating my intent,” he said, and drew her in for a kiss.

 

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You'll find plenty more great reads over at Tuesday's Tales.