The Call
By Beverly Greene
By Beverly Greene
NOTE: This story is protected by international copyright laws and may NOT be reproduced in any form without the author's expressed written permission.
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is one of the two stories I wrote for hopeful publications, but they were not accepted. Both need a lot of work and are so short because of the very small word max that the submission allowed. However, I still think this is a very cute story worth the few minutes it will take you to read it!)
It was cold and rainy outside, just a typical fall day. Susan trudged home from work on the side walk she walked everyday with only a useless umbrella attempting to repel the cold drops. She carefully stepped over the huge puddles she could spot in her sleep. When she finally got home, she took off her wet jacket and hung it on the shower rod to drip dry, like always. She changed into some comfortable, dry jogging pants and a tee-shirt and went to the kitchen and put on some coffee. She pressed play on her answering machine and listened to the recorded voices. She rolled her eyes as she listened to a bill reminder that she didn't need, and just sighed when she heard her mom reminding her to call, again. A little smile caressed her face as she heard the last message. It was Michelle.
She sighed and fixed herself a cup of coffee and sat down on the couch. As she got comfortable on the couch, her mind lingered on Michelle's message. She wondered why Michelle had to work late again this week. She always told Susan what she was working on, but she hadn't mentioned anything that might keep her late twice in one week when she had hardly ever worked overtime before.
Susan sighed and tried to calm herself. She sipped her coffee and tried to think positively instead of jumping to conclusions. Maybe Michelle just didn't get all her work done that day. Maybe they just didn't have enough time in the day to get everything done, Susan certainly could understand that. Maybe they had some new project that had to be done ASAP that Michelle just hadn't told her about yet.
She decided to just call Michelle and find out what was going on. Maybe she wanted to prove to herself that Michelle really was at work, just like she had said. She dialled the numbers and listened to the first ring, but then hung up before anyone could answer. She felt sick as she thought of the possibility that maybe Michelle wasn't working late. Maybe she was with that cute dyke they had seen the other night in the bar. She did seem to know Michelle, but not Susan.
The longer she sat there, the more upset she got. She thought back to the day that Michelle had came over with traces of lipstick still on her cheek. She said it was from her mom, but she had never seen Michelle's mom ever wear lipstick. So what if Michelle said she was wearing it for the 65th birthday party that Michelle had claimed to be at all afternoon? It was the perfect excuse since Michelle's father refused to accept that his daughter was a lesbian and wouldn't invite Susan into his home, much less to his birthday party. That was it! That was all the proof that Susan needed!
She charged into the bedroom and dragged her suitcase out from under the bed. She started throwing in everything she could find of Michelle's. She walked around muttering to herself through the cascading tears about how hurt she was, how she couldn't understand why Michelle would do this to her. She decided that she wanted Michelle out of her life, for good. She couldn't live like this!
She flopped down on the bed and started crying even harder. She knew that she really didn't want to lose Michelle. Michelle had seemed so perfect. They had even talked about spending the rest of their lives together, but Susan just couldn't put up with cheating. She buried her face in her hands as she heard Michelle's key turn in the door, she didn't even want to look at her.
Michelle walked in and saw Susan crying on the bed. "Honey! What's wrong?" Susan looked up angrily, ready to tell the woman she had loved for ten long months to get the hell out of her life and to take her fake promises with her. Just as she opened her mouth to tell her that, her misty eyes cleared enough for her to see the dozen red roses in Michelle's hand. "Why did you get those?" she asked harshly. She was sure they were only an unspoken apology for cheating and lying.
Much to Susan's surprise, Michelle handed her the roses and got down on one knee. She pulled a small box out of the right hand pocket of her coat and opened it to expose a perfect half carat engagement ring. Susan's jaw dropped. Michelle looked tenderly into her eyes. "Susan, I love you with all of my heart and soul. You are now and will forever be a part of me. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?"
Susan wanted to say yes so badly, but there was something she needed to know first. "Why did you say that you had to work late tonight?" she asked, still afraid of the answer. Michelle just giggled a little and then explained that the ring hadn't been sized correctly when she bought it earlier that week, so she had to pick it up today. Michelle explained that she had taken the afternoon off. She had wanted to be waiting for Susan when she got home from work with the ring and roses, but when she got there, they weren't done with the ring yet, so she had called Susan and told her that she'd be late for dinner.
Susan threw her arms around Michelle's neck. "Yes!! Oh yes, I'll marry you, Michelle! I love you so much!" As they hugged, Michelle saw the packed suitcase next to Susan on the bed. "Uh, honey, umm, what's the deal with the suitcase and why were you crying when I came in?" This time it was Susan's turn to giggle. "Oh, that? I just had a really bad day."
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� 1999 Beverly Greene owns all rights to this original story.
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