"It didn't mean anything. I swear." Nora turned away, unable to even look at Winston as he tried to explain why it wasn't his fault, why she shouldn't walk out the door, why she should stay in a relationship that hadn't been good for either of them for months. "Why do you want to be with me Winston?" Nora asked, struggling to maintain the even, unemotional expression she had become so adept at assuming. "Are we happy? Are you happy? I don't see someone who is satisfied with their relationship resorting to infidelity." Winston stepped toward her, attempting to put his hands on her shoulders and look pleadingly into her eyes.
"Come on baby. You know you make me happy. Just because I made one little mistake doesn't mean I don't love you. Like I said, she didn't mean anything to me. I was just a little drunk and she was all over me. Everyone makes mistakes, right?" Nora closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and thought back to how things used to be.
Winston wasn't always such a cliche. When he and Nora initially met, he was kind, and sweet, and caring. Nora had just gotten out of a passionate but emotionally draining long distance relationship in her sophomore year of college, and Winston was someone who was just supposed to be a fling. They met at a party Nora was dragged to by her roommate, and Nora admired the broad shoulders and deep brown eyes of the charismatic stranger who refused to let her frown the entire night. He told her jokes, and made ridiculously distorted faces at which she couldn't help but laugh. During the two years they had been together, he picked up the shattered pieces of her heart and made them fit back together, piece by piece. After graduation, they moved in together, Nora following Winston to Richmond, Virginia, where he had gotten a job at a chemical engineering firm that would jumpstart his career. Nora started a small children's book store, her dream since childhood. Nora thought they were happy.
Nora took a deep breath and opened her eyes, bracing herself against the subtle persuasion Winston was so adept at performing. "Winston, I can't do this anymore. I can't be with someone who I can't trust. I think you should go." Nora said as evenly as she could manage.
Winston's eyes, cajoling only a moment ago, seemed to harden in an instant. "You think I should go?" Winston said, his voice taking on a cruel edge Nora had only heard a few times before. "Who do you think pays the bills on this place, baby? You think you can kick me out of my own home? Think again. I'm not going anywhere."
Nora took a step back. She had found over the years that it was best not to provoke Winston when he got like this. Alcohol was the source of the few disagreements Winston and Nora had had in their relationship. A few beers in, Winston was charming and fun, the social lubricant leaving him without a care in the world. After a certain point; however, Winston began to reveal a darker, more aggressive side to his personality that Nora didn't like to be around. Whenever he was drinking heavily, Nora usually chose to let him pass out at a friend's house rather than bringing him home to be alone with her. He had never hit her, but Nora had felt distinctly unsafe in the past. The uneasiness she got after those nights was always washed away by the return of Winston's usual loving and affectionate personality in the morning.
Tonight was one of those nights Winston had gone past his tipping point. As he had noisily let himself in after a night out with his buddies, Nora had gone downstairs, intending to help Winston get his shoes off and fall into bed. What she hadn't prepared herself for was the undeniable sight of crimson lipstick smeared on his collar and the stench of cheap perfume clinging to his body. She knew she shouldn't provoke Winston in this state, but Nora hadn't been able to help herself. She had asked him if he had been with another woman. After some evasion, he had admitted to an indiscretion, and had immediately started his efforts to earn Nora's forgiveness.
"If you're not going anywhere, I will." Nora said unsteadily, doing her best to maintain distance between herself and Winston. "I'm going to spend the night at the shop. We can talk about this in the morning after you've calmed down."
Winston approached her, slow and calculating. "You think I need to calm down?" Winston asked, the cold level tone of his voice making Nora's heart pound in her chest. "I think you're the one that needs to calm down Nora. I goddamned told you it didn't mean anything. I shouldn't have to explain myself any further than that. Do you understand me?" Nora nodded, unwilling to anger Winston further in his current state. "Good. Then shut the fuck up, and go to bed. I'm done discussing this." Winston turned away and trudged towards the stairs.
"I'll be up in a minute, I'm going to take a shower." Nora said softly as he walked away. Winston grunted halfway up the stairs, his alcohol addled mind already indifferent to anything but the lure of a soft bed.
Nora sank onto the couch, her mind racing and her heart pumping. She needed to get out of there. As quietly as she possibly could, Nora grabbed her purse and keys and slipped out the front door. She walked two blocks through the crisp autumn air to her small but cozy shop. Nora shivered as she stepped inside. She had forgotten a jacket on her walk and the cold had left goosebumps on her pale arms. Upon entering the store, the mellow smell of paper and ink, the bright happy colors of children's book covers, and the plush cartoon covered rugs soothed Nora in the way nothing else in the world could. Nora crossed the short distance of the store's main sales floor to the soft, slightly faded blue loveseat in the back corner of her shop. She sat, then sank down into its comforting cushions. Exhausted from the night's events, Nora was overtaken by a fitful sleep.
Nora was woken the next morning by bright shafts of sunlight coming through her glass storefront. She rose, rubbing sleep from her still tired eyes. Nora glanced at the clock ticking away above the main entrance to the store. "Crap!" Nora exclaimed, realizing that her store was due to open in less than ten minutes. She rose quickly, straightening up her impromptu sleeping space and smoothing her rumpled clothing as well as was possible. Almost as soon as Nora had returned to the main desk after unlocking the front door, she was alerted to the presence of a customer by the faint tinkling of the brass bell above the entrance. She put on her best face, turning to utter "Welcome to the Children's Corner!" but was stopped before the phrase could leave her lips. She hadn't seen the man who had just entered her shop in over three years. His presence provoked thoughts of their very last conversation, a tearful phone call.
"What do you mean you want to end things?" Nora asked, her voice watery with the tears she was trying to swallow.
"Babe, I honestly think this is what's best for us. I love you, and I always will, but I can't ask you to endure this distance, or worry about me every day. This is an incredible opportunity for me, but it's not fair for me to ask you give up your life for my goals. You have to let me go."
Elias was in his final semester of studying photography when he had ended things with Nora. They had been dating since he was a senior and she was a sophomore in high school. Near the end of his time at university, Elias had been offered a generous grant to go photograph citizens displaced by the civil war ravaging Syria. He felt a deep connection to the region as his grandparents were both Syrian immigrants.
"I can't ask you to wait for me Nora. I love you far too much to put you through that."
Elias had left soon after that conversation. Nora had tried to call him for closure a few times after that, but the regions he was photographing were often remote and off the grid of cell service. She had never reached him.
Nora was awoken from her reverie by Elias' deep, melodic voice. "Nora Johnson? Is that you?"
Nora mentally forced herself to take stock of her situation. She started by observing the ghost from her past now standing before her. The years had been kind to Elias. His hair was shorter and neater than it had ever been when they were together. He wore a beard now, the dark hair serving to accentuate the sharp planes of his jaw. His muscular torso tapered into a trim waist, seemingly taut with muscle. Although his body may have differed from the boy she once knew, his eyes were exactly as she remembered, two pools of liquid silver that seemed to mirror her soul.
"Elias what are you doing here?" Nora asked.
"I'm in town visiting my sister and came here looking for a birthday present for my nephew." Elias replied. "I can leave if this makes you uncomfortable."
Did this make Nora uncomfortable? She wasn't even sure. It had been a long time since she and Elias had ended their relationship. She had been dating Winston for years. She should be fine with running into an ex shouldn't she? Despite the logical portion of Nora's brain making those assertions, she couldn't shake thoughts of the happiness that she had felt in Elias's arms. Those were undeniably simpler times, and memories that Nora didn't regret, despite the pain that had followed. "No," she mentally decided. "I can handle this."
"Of course not" she said aloud to Elias. "What is your nephew interested in?" Elias seemed to analyze her face for a moment before replying, "Dinosaurs. He saw Jurassic Park and has been hooked ever since."
"You're in luck" replied Nora. "We have a great selection of dinosaur books. Let me pull some for you." As Nora took to the shelves, pulling volumes of all sizes for Elias to look at, he questioned her. "How have you been Nora? It's been a long time."
"I've been great," she replied. "The store keeps me pretty busy most of the time."
"Are you seeing anyone right now?" asked Elias. "Never mind, of course you are. Look at you," he said.
Nora glanced down from the ladder she had scaled to reach a top shelf. "Still a flatterer I see," she said with a grin. "To answer your question though, yes I'm seeing someone." "Or I think I am," Nora thought to herself, her grin quickly fading into a more somber expression.
Elias, misinterpreting her change of expression, said "I'm sorry if that wasn't ok to ask, I was just trying to make conversation."
"No, it's fine," replied Nora quickly. "It's just, nevermind, it's nothing at all," Nora said, forcing a pleasant smile to take over her face as she stepped down from the ladder. "Here's a selection of books for you to choose from. Let me know if you need anything else," Nora said in a voice even she could tell wasn't her own. As she descended the last step with her arms full of books, Nora stumbled. As she fell, she felt a pair of rough but warm hands grasp her waist lightly. A moment later, she found herself face to face with Elias, his gray eyes staring concernedly into her own.
"Are you alright?" he asked, his hands still lingering on her waist. Nora, distracted by his close proximity, barely registered the metallic sound of the bell on her front door.