This is my favorite Caryl moment EVER so I hope I did it justice! The support for this project has been amazing, and completely unexpected. Thank you all so so much for reading and I'm so happy you're enjoying it!
Day Three
It was this uncouth, insistent urge that swelled like an ocean wave to be unsparing with her that prompted him. Words climbed out from the emotions that he vigilantly endured, scratching against his tongue to be set free. Words that he had spent hours rearranging, as he searched out every little ping and pang his heart felt while he was around her.
Starting over. He wanted her to be unshackled, for the chains to dissolve so she could revel in their freedom. To be liberated from all the tiny weights that had been lobbed at them over time. But she needed to participate and her eyes wouldn't focus on him since they collected the water. A glum ambition on her part to not let any of his words sink in.
When she slammed the trunk closed it clenched around his heart. Her obstinate fixation on that damn car gnawed at his gut. She wasn't listening.
He fixed on her, as the foggy sadness seeped off to gather in a pool at her feet. She bent low to pick up the water jugs; her arm wavering slightly under the load. It would be poetic, he thought, to carry one and lessen her burden as he could.
His entire self loosened when he made his offer, and the water jug tumbled to the ground ungracefully. Something had set him on fire as he hid behind his open palm. A heavy anchor twisted around his stomach, climbing upwards into his beating heart, seizing it as well. He was a fool.
Yet for all his failure, the most miraculous vision happened upon him. Radiant like a sunbeam that warmed his center, the lilt of her tease comforting in its bewildering way. He marked Day Three with her loveliness as he clambered after her.