Something To Remember Me By
written by: Linda Chandanais
He walked from room to room, looking for anything he might have missed. Spotting a picture above her desk, he dropped his duffle bag and plucked it off the wall.
“I knew it! Another damn tack.” He leaned closer. “I told her I’d hang her stupid pictures the right way. What was it she said?” He snorted. “Oh yeah, I was trying to control her.”
Scowling, he ran his fingertips over the peppering of pinholes in the wall. “What I was trying to do was keep her from doing this!”
His eyes drifted to the photo in his hand. “Her and that dumb cat.” He spat the words. “She liked it more than me.”
Ice cubes collided noisily as he drained his rum and coke, then plunked the glass down next to a coaster on her antique desk. He knew it would leave a milky ring.
Something to remember me by.
He pulled a half-empty bottle of rum from the duffle bag and took a swig. The rum was a birthday present to her from a friend. He now knew what kind of friend and he’d rather have his dick fall off than leave the two of them a drop. He would take it with him. No, he’d drink it here. It was still his house, too, until midnight.
Raising the bottle, he toasted the photo. “Good riddance to you and your fur-ball hacking cat and this stupid house I never liked, anyway.”
He gulped heavily, glaring at her image as if expecting a response while the rum burned his throat and flooded his chest.
He traced the outline of her face with the tip of his thumb as he recalled how she used to complain that he paid more attention to his boat than to her. When did she stop?
I should have noticed.
Stooping over the duffle bag, he wrapped the photo in a hoodie and zipped it closed. Before leaving, he moved the glass of melting ice cubes to the coaster and wiped away small beads of condensation.
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