TUESDAY TALES - PICTURE PROMPT #ROMANCE #HUDSONRIVER

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Howdy! Welcome. It's picture prompt week and the limit on words is 300. This week is a bit from a work-in-progress called, "The One that Got Away." This will be the first story in my new, second-chance anthology, Echoes of the Heart. Scroll down for the link back to the great stories at Tuesday Tales. Thanks for stopping by.

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Heather sat at her regular table outside and pulled her sweater around her against the chill of early May. Would today be the day Mike showed up today, apologizing and hugging her tight? She sighed. She’d been there every Sunday for two months.  

“More coffee? Something stronger?” Pete the bartender asked.

“Hot toddy?”

“Coming up. Any sign of him?”

“Nope.  Not today.”

“Maybe next week. I’ll be right back.”

She buttoned the sweater. Her gaze studied the people conversing, drinking and have a late brunch at Charlie’s restaurant. The ones holding hands must be lovers, she figured. Some barely looked at each other or spoke. Other tables held three or four friends, chattering away and shoving forkfuls of food in their mouths. Heather was the only one who sat alone. Raising her chin slightly, she decided she didn’t care. Let people wonder whatever they wanted to.

   It took her five effing years to decide that Mike what’s-his-name was the love of her life. Determined to wait until she found him or he found her, she ignored the nagging feeling that this was the dumbest thing she’d ever done. She could hear her mother’s words.

“But you have that lovely Frenchman,”

“Belgian, Mom.”

“Belgian, French, Irish, who cares. Anyway. He’s lovely, rich and wants to marry you.”

“He never said marry,”

“Oh? I thought he did. Well to move in with him. Ah, the Netherlands,” he mother had said, sighing and clasping her hands over her heart.

   Who gives a flying you-know-what about the Netherlands? What about Heather’s heart? Didn’t her mother think she’d tried to find someone else? Heather had searched everywhere for someone else. But it was Mike or no one. And right now, with only two weeks to go, it looked like no one was winning.

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