Coffee and a Burn

Authors note: I wanted to try my hand at a 750 word story. I know many of you will complain. FTDS By all means feel free to write your own ending. Id love to see what you come up with. I don't know for sure if this theme has been done before or not. I have yet to see it but I could be wrong if I am I apologize.

I stood in line at the coffee shop when I first saw her. She was just in front of me. I couldn't see her face yet something about her just felt right. She had long blond hair that smelled of lilac. I heard her voice before I had even seen her face. It was the most melodic thing I had ever heard in my life. I was falling in love with a woman I didn't even know.

I stood there in my little world, fantasizing about what it would be like to be with her. I hadn't even noticed what was going on around me when she turned around and a scalding cup of coffee splashed over my chest. It was about that time I snapped out of my fantasy due to the excruciating amount of pain I was feeling.

"Oh shit... I am so sorry. Someone help, please! He is hurt badly," the beautiful blond yelled.

The manager of the shop came running with a towel and some butter to rub on my chest. I looked at him and said, "Are you insane? You don't rub butter on a burn. All that will do is lock in the heat and pain. Use some Aloe Vera if you have any." I was managing not to scream as the pain in my chest throbbed. The blond held my hand the entire time, wiping tears from her eyes and apologizing.

I squeezed her hand, looked into her eyes, and said, "It was just as much my fault for not paying attention."

"Let me take you to the hospital to get checked out," she said.

"I'm fine."

"Please, let me. These kinds of burns are serious," she said.

"OK.... I'll go." I smiled at her through clenched teeth. I didn't want the pain to show on my face. I think I was losing that battle. She helped me to the car and drove me to the emergency room.

They took me right to the back. I was able to be seen right away. The doctor cleaned up the area as best he could and dressed it with some kind of burn cream and some medical gauze. He gave me a prescription for some painkillers. We were in and out in less than an hour. This was the fastest I had ever seen anyone get through an emergency room.

I eventually found out through talking to her while driving that her name was Elizabeth, everyone calls her Liz. I noticed she wasn't wearing any rings, so I took a chance and asked her if she would have dinner with me one night this week. She told me that she was free Saturday night. She gave me her number and told me to text her. She said not to call but to text because she never answered phone calls. She always texts people.

After that first date, we started seeing each other every Saturday. I wanted to spend more time with her but she always said that she was busy with one thing or another during the week. That seemed kind of odd to me but I didn't think much of it. I was falling more in love with her every date.

One Friday night I was at a bar with some buddies of mine and I happened to see her walk in with another man. My heart dropped and shattered. I thought we had had something. Suddenly I was no longer in the mood to drink and told my buddies I was leaving. I made sure she didn't see me and made my way out to my car.

I watched the doors for a few hours until she came out, hand in hand with him. They got into the same vehicle together and I followed them. They pulled into a driveway in a suburban area, and the mailbox said Mr. and Mrs Jones. Son of a Bitch. She was married. I was fuming at this point and went back home. I had trouble getting to sleep and spent most of the night thinking of a plan as to what I wanted to do.

I got up early, with maybe 3 hours of sleep, and went to their house and parked nearby where I could watch the door. I watched her leave the house to go to work. I waited a few minutes, went to the door, and knocked. Her husband opened the door and I said, "Mr. Smith. I think we need to talk."