Tanya reached for the door handle, stopped, withdrew her hand, and waited.
Through the wooden barrier, the muffled sound of footsteps could be heard; of a man approaching– her man, David. And her heart leaped for joy, for she knew his arrival meant another unforgettable weekend, and another chance to love and be loved abundantly.
But when she opened the door, and the frame creaked and the hinges squealed and she saw David’s face, all the walls and towers of the castle she had built in her mind of this moment, shattered and fell. She felt his dark, scowling eyes on her, heard his quickened breathing, saw the way his hands clenched and tightened, and understood what needed to be done.
Tanya knew the place in her mind where he dwelt. It was a spacious home, filled with rich tapestries and paintings, covered in satin and velvet and exquisite mosaics. She knew the things he found pleasure in, delighted in the joy he felt with her. And now it would have to be thrown away. All the rooms decorated in photographs of memories, all the books filled with facts about his life. Every trinket she’d saved of his verbal affection for her– she would gloat over them and hold them to her breast whenever she wished– they must be smashed to pieces. The palace he occupied in her mind must be demolished, torn down, the wreckage removed, and new sod planted in its place.
There was no questioning. No time to reminisce, or save the valuables. David, and all that he was or ever might be in Tanya’s life, needed to be forgotten.
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