The first month of 1931 was slowly coming to an end.

After the kiss, nothing has changed between Mary and Bert and she left the next day. But it was a different leaving than usual: instead of her just leaving, they had breakfast together and to his surprise she embraced him with the words "I'll be back soon ... I promise".

Normally, these were words that he would have been happy about - normally.
If there weren't the memory of her leaving in 1922; because this sounded exactly the same.

Yes, they met each other again at the funeral in January 1924; but then they have't seen each other for six years.

Bert had acted strange since then, and of course Elizabeth was curious. One day both were not in the park but in the city. While Bert was packing his guitar away, the girl swung on a lantern and looked at his face: "Are you sad?"

Bert paused and looked at her questioningly: "Why should I be sad?"

"Well... you don't laugh that much anymore, your songs sound sadder than usual and your pictures aren't so colourful… Oh and you don't talk as much anymore."

"Alright..." With a sigh Bert fell to the nearby bank and rubbed his temples. "It may be that I'm not in such a good mood ..."

Elizabeth sat down next to him and looked at him questioningly. "Why?"

"It's because of Mary..."

"Because she's gone?"

"Yes, kind of... We spent New Year's Eve together and I did somethin' that I shouldn't have done."

"What?" She asked impatiently-sometimes she could be somewhat annoying. But Bert knew perfectly well that she would never stop asking.

"I kissed her at midnight."

"Awwwww! That's cute! But why shouldn't you have done it?"

"You know ... adults sometimes do things that are very ill-considered. It wasn't that she ran away or somethin' like that ... but I'm afraid we've distanced ourselves again." Bert couldn't believe that he talked to to a seven-year-old about his worries; she was too young to understand it all.

"Did she slap you or something?"

He had to laugh. "No, but... we hadn't seen each other for so long. Sometimes it isn't best to behave as if nothing has ever 'appened. Six years is a long time and I should've started slower."

"Do you regret it?" She interrupted him.

"What!?"

"Well, do you regret kissing her?"

"No! O' course not…"

"And she wasn't angry or anything?"

"As I said: no. We had breakfast the next morning and she said she'll be back soon", he kneaded his fingers, feeling like a teenage boy again, having his heart broken for the first time.

"Then don't worry! When she's back in London, everything will be fine."

"How old are you? 30?" He laughed, surprised by the wisdom in her words.

"You should never talk about a woman's age" she joked.

"You really spent too much time with Mary!" Bert turned her cap over. Yes, she had worn it every day since he gave it to her.

"Hey!" She adjusted her cap again when her eyes fell on a board in front of the jeweler. "What's written there?"
All she could tell was that there were letters above a chalked ring.

"Where?" As soon as he said so, she pulled him to the store across the street. And though it was small, this place probably had more money in it than he had ever had in his life.

"There on the board."

"I really have to teach you to read ... it says 'offer'."

But she didn't respond because she wanted to examine the jewelry.
When she saw the jewelry in the shop window, her eyes sparkled with them. "Look!", she pointed at a rose-gold necklace with a pendant in the shape of a heart set with glittering stones. "This one's beautiful!"

And Bert was sure: he would try to raise the money to buy her the necklace.

This time a rather short chapter but when I look at my notes I can say that the next one will be longer.

By the way: the next chapter will be the last of Part 1 of this story! (The story is divided into 5 parts)

From chapter 11 there will be a bigger jump but also more Mary!
But enough spoilers ;P

And many thanks to my beta reader I SingOnly4MyAngel :D