She ravishes the phone just after eight. “Let’s get a drink.” I debate for a second, with only two sprints remaining until takeoff. I’d be tired, disoriented as well. Could put it on the laterbase. But then again, why cut the adventure short? What the hell, go ahead and live.
Drinks, good ones, a few coins. Across from me, the surface like a desert. Her smile flashing as an intense sun between the highway greenery. This could end here, so formally, so American. Perish the imagination.
Past the highway darkened. Yet another set of chairs, their souls humming from the loudness surrounding. Closer, her breath falling soft, the glancing kiss now fanatically regular. She whispers to me, sweeter than the Michelada cooling nearby.
Moonlight grants vague passage. I feel the inevitable risk. Those steps hardly confound, only muster inspiration. “Until sunrise,” she confesses. The torrential priesthood.
We each sin, hers perhaps worse. The carmine cheeks torn to sorrow. “I’ll never see you again,” she lets between vibrant steam. My voice denies, she sounds genius. I relish a ticket, the blue booklet printed. For this an escape exists; hers but pity.
What if I dabbed winsome eyes? Promised kingdoms eternal? Prince Charming absolute? Saved her from misery? Exceeded where any Western sugar/spice lovingly tells the masculine, “it’s not you, it’s me.”
“Text me when you’re home.” A nod, an Uber vanishing. Ne’er a message. She severs so twine is nay tinder.
I fail the hero’s dream. Life canters forth.
ECONOMIC COMMANDER 