Every Rose, Lily J Norman [phonics readers TXT] 📗

She stood there trembling in anticipation in her long ivory gown waiting for her beloved. Tonight they would have their First Dance as a married couple. It had taken months of clever planning mostly over a few lesser known social networking sites. This way no one could find out their plan to be together but these weren’t a couple of love struck teenagers. Oh no! These were two forty- something’s who were very much in love. So why the cloak and dagger act? Surely they were old enough to know better? Well let me tell you this tragic tale of boy meets girl and maybe you’ll understand.
It all began for her six years ago. After a messy divorce she had declared herself a man free zone and began to re build her life. Okay so she had to go back to her parent’s house in the tiny mining village she had left behind but what’s done is done right? So she thought until that fateful day. One moment she was joking with her friends. The next their eyes had literally met across the room. I know it is a cliché but it did happen I swear. Who’d think it? Love at first sight actually exists. At least it did for these two lost souls. So began weeks of flirting over coffee and innuendo that set the room alight.
It took a few weeks to ask her out because he had never met anyone like her. She was so beautiful and he couldn’t get over the way she looked at him. So full of life and love. A love they had both been so deprived off as children.
Their first date was at a bowling alley in the centre of town. She blushed as he held her hand and he just had to kiss her. After that they were inseparable and in a matter of weeks she had moved into his upper floor flat and that very night they made love on his sofa. It was electric and so sensual that they knew that they were soul mates...
Every so often he’d catch her looking at him and it sent a shiver of pleasure down his spine. No one had ever made him feel like this and as they lay across his old battered couch he found himself letting her love the real him he had hidden away so long.
So what went wrong? Was it his ex that tried so hard to split them up? Or her mother who didn’t approve of where they lived? The answer is neither but they didn’t help with the situation
either.
Three years they had been together and despite their ups and downs they were more in love than ever but that started to change the day he did. It was just the odd row at first usually about money. In the early days he’d apologies and they would have the most incredible make up sex ever.
Then the name calling and accusations started but she still loved him. She couldn’t help it. Slowly his demands began to take over her life and she didn’t realize that she was seeing her friends and family less yet she didn’t say a word to him. He was her partner after all. Even if the rows were now weekly and he had taken control of all the money. She found herself having to beg for extra because the prices had gone up but through it all she still loved him. Even though now fear was creeping into the equation. Fear that was well founded the first time he pushed her against the wall. He wept bitterly afterwards and she had cradled him in her arms and forgiven him.
She learnt to turn the other bruised cheek even when he broke her nose on Valentine’s Day. By then she thought she probably deserved it. He went missing for a few hours that came back with a huge bouquet of red roses and begged for forgiveness. They went to bed and made love all night falling asleep in each other’s arms - just like old times. If only they stayed that way.
Everything was fine for a while. The arguments stopped being so heated and a strange calmness took over. During this brief period she fell more in love with him than she ever did and hoped that everything was back to the way it was.
She couldn’t be more wrong and four months later she found herself in a back of a taxi her face all swollen heading off to one of those ‘safe houses’ Finally she was free but part of her still missed him and couldn’t quite let go.
“I have an illness.” He tested her one night and began to explain. She read them with a heavy heart. It sounded like one of his games but she couldn’t stop herself from arranging to meet up with him.
Obviously it was very strained and one of them would always end up storming off but a familiar buzz on the phone would mean forgiveness later than night and so it went on. Until they realized the true extent of his mental illness and what it had done to them but by then it was too late what else could they do? Guilt etched away at her as she had been as he said ‘conditioned’ to hate him but she didn’t. It was the sickness that she hated. It had slowly possessed the man she loved and poisoned their relationship.
She had chosen the venue because she had always wanted to dance and now that they were finally man and wife he was going to sweep her off her feet across this ballroom floor. Yet it was tinged with sadness because they knew when the music stopped his medication would take effect. This was their final act of defiance to die together because the world didn’t understand the illness he had or the love they shared. All they saw was victim and a perpetrator. It is an ignorant world when you think about it.

Why is there fear in his eyes as I cradle his bloodstained body? I don’t understand. My heart’s slowing down and I hope I’ve done enough. I’ve lost count of the bruises he has given me but I’ve certainly given him plenty in return over the years but that’s love for you.
My eyes are so heavy and I am sure there is a banging on the door and loud voices. It must be the police. I can almost see them gliding across that floor with a look of love of that will last forever. I hope they are proud of me. I am their little girl after all

Publication Date: 10-19-2011

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