Maria sat on the bench, watching the little kids go round and round on the merry-go-round. She wished she was that young again, that carefree. And, that ignorant of life.
The sounds of the carnival rang in her ears, but she blanked them all out with the shut of her eyes and focused on the thoughts she was having. The complicated thoughts.
She therefore didn't notice Michael until he was nearly on top of her.
"Hey," he said gruffly, his hands shoved in his pockets. Obviously, he and the other three had come back from whatever secretive thing they had been doing. Something where humans didn't belong.
If only Maria, Liz and Alex had found some other way to occupy their time while they waited then what they had. "Hey," she replied, forcing a smile as she looked up at him.
Being the perceptive male he was, Michael didn't notice anything was wrong. "Ready to go?" he asked, kicking his feet in the dirt.
That meant of course that she was giving him a ride home. Not that she minded. They had reached a truce of sorts, and were on the way to making a real relationship (in the broadest sense of the words of course).
"Not yet," she said quietly, leaning back. "Just a few minutes, okay?"
He was impatient, but he sat down none the less beside her. Maria wished for a moment he would put his arm around her, but the hope was futile. Michael would never be given to public displays of affection.
She saw Liz approach Max a little ways off, and the words of the fortune teller rang in
her ears:
"One of you will never have their true love, one of you is guaranteed only two days
with their true love and one you will have 'happily ever after' with
consequences."
How could Max and Liz be the ones that would never have each other, or only have each other for a long time? They were the Romeo and Juliet. They were the soulmates. They were the perfect couple. No, they would have happily ever after, it was what was meant for them.
She wished could dismiss that woman as a crackpot, but Maria couldn't. The woman had known to much about other things, personal things, to be a fraud.
And after the happily ever after, the choices were slim. 2 days with your true love, or never at all. And who knew which was which. Would she get any time with Michael, or would that be Alex and Isabel?
She snuck a glance at her true love on the bench beside her. She was being denied a chance to be with him before they even really got together. Despite her best intentions, tears began to fill her eyes.
Maria wasn't a superstitious woman, nor was she a fool. But, she put stock in what the woman said. besides, wouldn't that be poetic justice. Finally, she finds the only man she could ever really love, and she has to accept there is no future for them, no matter what she wants.
Maria sniffled, but Michael examining a cut on his hand and didn't notice. Why couldn't they be soulmates? Why did she have to be in love with such a bastard? Why did they ever come to this goddamn fair? Was it really better to know who the future held, knowing there was nothing you could do to change it? To be doomed forever. To squash out all hope of a life with Michael, when that was all she wanted?
A maximum of two days of pure happiness with Michael. What was pure happiness anyway? She knew there hadn't been one day with Michael where she could describe the feeling as pure bliss. But, she loved every moment she spent with him, when he wasn't ripping her heart out. If pure happiness came after sex, she'd put it off until they were old and gray, if it would keep him with her.
That was the way it was going to be. Threats of the future, or no threats of the future, Max and Liz would find their way to one another. And she and Michael would be alone, separate, apart.
She let herself indulge in a good long stare at him while he kicked a patch of dust. She may not get many more.
She wanted a lifetime with him no matter what the consequences. But, if she would only get two days of pure happiness, she would make them last a lifetime in her mind, knowing this was the only male she could love, man or alien.
Happily ever after didn't happen to people like her, or like Michael, and she had no reason to think it would change now.
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