Crystal Clear

Chapter Eleven

The taxi pulled into the taxi rank. Ava watched its burgundy paint peppered with rain from the earlier rain shower drive in front of where they were stood, the car’s window rolled down. “where to mate?” said the taxi driver inside. Ava reached into her handbag for a lip balm. Rummaging around at the bottom her fingertips discovered a smooth, round, familiar feeling stone. Triggering a memory, she quickly closed the bag and returned the straps to her shoulder.

“I can’t!” Ava blurted out, interrupting Dan asking her if she was going in the taxi, he’d opened the door and had been ushering her inside. He blinked in disbelief. Ava continued, “my heart isn’t in this. my heart is lying in a hospital bed. He needs me, and I need him. I had a moment of weakness with you and for that I apologize.” Daniel looked at her and closed the taxi car door. “Don’t worry, I get it. I’ve known it from the moment I saw you so upset at Cecilia’s funeral. You’ve never acted like that about me” he said, understanding but slightly narcissistically in reply. Ava raised a smile and said, “I’m crazy about him, Dan, I know what we had was special and I will always have fond memories of what we had but my… what I had with Richard was in a different league and it’s worth me fighting for!”. Dan made a sound like he understood what she meant, and Ava knew she’d narrowly avoided a big mistake. The sense of doubt she’d felt after she’d agreed to come home with him had lifted. She watched the taxi drive forward to another couple, leaving the two of them stood there in the rain that had just started. “I’m going to go back to the hospital and make him remember me. Bye, Dan!” Ava said as she headed towards the hospital, leaving Dan stood in the rain, his hair going flat because of it. She’d never seen him look so deflated in her life, but she didn’t feel sorry. She clutched the stone in her fist and walked as fast as she could towards the hospital. She was determined to remind him of her and their love, she’d given up so easy the first time and she was going to go back to fight for it.

The hospital corridor finished at the ward doors, Ava entered them coyly, sneaking past the nurses so she didn’t have to be invited in. Creeping into the side ward Richard was on, she saw Sally sat on the blue plastic chair in the corner of the room, upon seeing Ava she scowled.

“I’d like a few minutes with Richard please sally” Ava asked as politely as he could, Sally tutted and left the room, mumbling under her breath about Ava being so flighty before. Richard watched his mother leave and then returned his eyes to Ava. “Jayne?” he asked.

“it’s ava. Avalee. I’m your girlfriend… I mean… ex – girlfriend. I’m still madly in love with you. I know you don’t remember me, but I remember you. We had some great, incredible times together. My heart adores you and I know you adore me too.” Richard unsure what to reply to the strange lady stood next to him, carried on looking at her with intrigue. Ava continued “I found this….” She placed the stone into his hand, it was a pink heart shaped agate crystal “you bought this for me after our second date. We met at the hospital…this hospital. We lived together, I know you love watching action movies, I pretend to know what’s going on and you hate having to pause to explain the plot to me. I hog the covers – you hate it. There’s a theme here… I do a lot of things that irk you, but you love me…loved me. Your favourite colour is green and it’s the colour of your feature wall in your bedroom. You kiss my forehead and boop my nose. When we went on our first date…” Richard interrupted her “My alerter went off and you were sat there in the restaurant looking at me bemused. I had to dash off. So, our second date was technically our first. Afterwards I bought you flowers to make up for being called out, I got you the stone heart when I knew I was in love with you. My heart is yours, I put on the note I gave it to you with.” Richard had a tear in his eye as he told her it all, “I remember it all crystal clear now. Ava, come here”. Ava moved into his open arms, tears streaming down her cheeks, his hands rubbing her back as they cuddled for a few minutes in happiness. “I remember everything, the good and the bad, but one thing this has taught me is that life is too short. No more secrets, no more half-truths and definitely no more Dan for either of us.” Richard said as he shuffled his body up the bed, resting in the pillows behind him. Ava nodded in agreement, Richard added, “Dan is moving to Canada next month for his new job, so that’s great news that he’ll be out of our way. We can make a fresh start. Go into my gym bag and get my denim jacket will ya? It’s tucked in that cupboard.” Ava got up and went to the cupboard, retrieving the jacket, passing it to Richard, he told her to go into the jacket pocket. Following his words, she did so and removed a small navy-blue velvet jewellery box. Her eyes met his and he smiled cheekily at her. “it’s been there for ages, I was waiting for the right time. Then everything went wrong. But here we are. Back where it all begun. Seems only right to do it here!” Richard told her. Ava opened the box and it made a snap noise, it revealed a stunning silver ring with a small pink stone.

“Will you marry me? I’d get down on one knee but ya know…” He asked

“oh my! Yes!” Ava exclaimed in delight.