It had been a month. Exactly 30 days.
He still picked up the phone every once in a while to call her, to see if she wanted to hang out. He got the same answer every time he called. …this number is no longer in service.
And he remembered. It was harder for him than anyone else. He could have saved her, stopped her. Who cares if that bastard Pratt would have kept on living if she wouldn't have left him.
He missed their conversations every night. (He called her every night, you know.) He missed their meetings on Saturday nights, just to get drunk. Most of all, he missed how when she was drunk she would sit in his lap and let him stroke her hair. They almost always ended up at his place to pass out, but nothing ever happened.
Except for the last time he saw her, that is. They weren't even wasted. It was a Wednesday night, and he had taken Thursday off of work to spend the day with her. She came to his apartment with Chinese food and two Diet Cokes.
She laughed when he said he hated Diet Coke. She knew that, but they were all out of regular.
Apparently.
He playfully smacked her head and she put down the food to tackle him. She ended up on top of him, pinning him down. He fought with her until he got his arms loose, but was still pinned from his waist down. He stared up at her and realized, not for the first time, how beautiful she was. She asked what he was going to do now, teasing him. Without even realizing what he was doing, he wrapped his arms around her neck and brought her face close to his. He heard her breath hitch in her throat and with that, he kissed her.
And she kissed back. He flipped her over so that he was on top of her and he held her face.
4 years of working together and that is what it had come to. He had wanted her since the first day he saw her, long auburn curls falling down her back.
It took him a week of working with her to fall in love with her. She was just like that.
The next morning, they woke up next to each other and smiled. No regrets? He asked. She shook her head, kissed him, and fell back asleep with her head on his chest.
They made plans for dinner that weekend. She swore that she'd cook.
And now, here he was. 30 days after the fact..
Danny had taken up the habit of drinking Diet Coke and rum at the bar on Saturday nights.
He ended up sitting with her that one night, 30 days after, talking.
The people who walked by didn't see anything, but he did.
He knew that she was there. It was written on the stone to his left.
Aiden Burn. We love you.
That's really all it needed to say, anyway.