Cursed By Rebirth? – Installment 8

Cursed by Rebirth?

By

D.M. KURTZ

Installment 8: Proposal

The discussion with Evelynn had been equally enlightening and discouraging. While Jason had combed through the papers she’d placed in front of him on the kitchen table that they’d once shared, she showed him pictures of his family and of those he had once called friends, and with each story came a jaded remark regarding just how much pain he’d caused.

According to her, his father had died of cancer several years prior, and his had mother drank herself to death in the ensuing months, all while Jason callously touted that it was well-deserved. John, the man that had once been as close to Jason as a brother, had taken the brunt of his angry, drunken tirades until he’d finally abandoned hope for their relationship. To hear such horrid things about the life he had forgotten was somehow sensationally beyond mortifying and served as proper motivation for signing everywhere required and leaving as quickly as he was able.

Amanda clutched his hand as they drove away from that despairing pit of agonizing memory in somber silence. Jason’s head pounded, and his chest ached terribly, for all the while he was haunted by flashes of memory that served to prove Evelynn’s harsh words to have been all-too-real. They eventually arrived at the house that he and Amanda called home, and for a moment he felt some relief once they were safely inside. He plopped himself down on the suede leather couch in the living area, and moments later Amanda was by side while they both sipped on an open Shiner.

“Marry me,” he blurted quite suddenly. He turned to meet Amanda’s electric gaze and saw her brows raise just slightly.

“You aren’t very funny,” she replied.

“I’m serious,” he told her, though that realization was perhaps more shocking to him than it was to her. “You are all that I have, and…” he paused, set his beer on an end table and slid to one knee while he withdrew from his front pant pocket the ring he’d discovered two weeks prior.

“You saved me,” he told her, “in every conceivable way. I truly can’t imagine my life without you and… it’s crazy, I know that,” he added quickly. “But, I want this. I want a chance at another life, and I want it to be with you. Let me spend every day as the man that you know, the opposite of that piece of trash that was dredged up today.”

The ensuing silence could not be overstated, for every moment that Jason knelt there with the ring extended and Amanda did not respond was excruciating.

“That… has to be the worst proposal,” she finally told him, but her lips were lifted with just a hint of a smirk. “But if you were suave and smooth, I wouldn’t love you like I do. And I do, so yes.”

Jason felt his heavy heart surge with joy, and his cheeks split into a wide grin. Amanda held out her left hand and he slid the sparkling ring onto her finger. She tilted her head down and pressed her lips against his and for that moment, all of his cares melted away.

“How did you afford the ring?” Amanda asked after they’d parted. “Not that I’ve ever minded it, but you don’t exactly take care of any of the bills around here…”

“I found it,” he confessed, “in my wallet. I think… I know that it must have belonged to Evelynn and wearing her ring isn’t ideal but – “

“It’s perfect,” she interrupted as she held it up to the light and smiled. “If this is truly what you want. I’m no ones second choice or snap decision, Jason.”

“Never,” he replied quickly. “I haven’t been sure of anything since I woke up in that hospital, except for you, for us.”

She was looking at him with that intense and passionate gaze that he’d come to adore, and he felt a tingle run across his skin. He’d meant every word, and to have her desire to be with him even after all they’d experienced that day felt truly incredible. For the first time since he’d begun to learn of his sordid history, he became overwhelmed with a new sensation: hope.

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Copyright © 2018 D.M. Kurtz

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