The Heart Gives Second Chances
Chapter 6: Second Chances
I woke up in the middle of the night, beside Vicki, the night before we talked about divorce, a week before I died. I don’t know if I dreamed the flower thing or if I fell asleep as a plastic flower and dreamed this new life with Vicki, but I jumped at the chance that the Universe gave me.
Two tickets back to where she used to live, a hotel beside that Valentine’s restaurant, and we never talked about divorce the whole week before we left. I even listened and asked about her glassblowing. She did have an affair with Lyn as he followed her out a year later. At first she cried, but she always cries, and I laughed and hugged her and told her she could still see him, that I loved her, all of her, and Lyn, while I had no attraction to him, but I liked him as a person, grew to like him, whatever, I have no idea what to make of that. She also didn’t understand, and just smiled and looked at me funny when I tried to explain my dream or my past or future life or whatever the hell happened.
We walked into the restaurant hand in hand, and Becky rushed over, hugged Vicki, and then hugged me, as if she knew me, but how could she?
“Is this the woman? And you’re married, wow, I love the rings,” Becky said as she held Vicki’s hand and scrutinized the ring. While I couldn’t read her emotions anymore, I knew enough from her facial features, the creases beside her eyes, the wrinkles over her nose, and her genuine smile that only shows her bottom teeth, that she felt genuine happiness for Vicki, for us.
Becky sat us at the table, the table where I first met Vicki, but it didn’t have fake flowers, rather a glass rose. Beautiful. All the tables had glass roses, most red, but some pink, yellow, and one blue. Except for the very last table, the one that they never used except on busy nights, maybe once a year, sat silk flowers, red and yellow, with two tattered green leaves and one ripped leaf.
“That’s lovely,” I said as I lifted the glass rose up for a better look. I sat on the chair that I knew well, the one with the gouged back right leg and the rip that Carlos’s wife fixed. While it didn’t have enough padding, it felt comfortable, like a chair designed to sit in. I also loved how the table allowed us to either sit close or across. I chose to sit close, knee to knee, so I could watch Becky dance around the restaurant and still touch my love.