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Nov. 20, 2023

The breeze was light, the sun dimming as it set with shades of orange, yellow, and red emanating from it in every direction. Joanna sat on the log, looked out at that beautiful sight again, for the umpteenth time, and was again, for the umpteenth time, in awe. She moved her hand an inch so her little finger lightly touched the side of Peter's hand. He let his little finger linger against hers, raised it ever so slightly, lowered it against hers, and repeated again, very slowly. She reciprocated. Their little fingers pressed more firmly against each other, then one slid over the other. Joanna continued watching the sun set, Peter watched her little finger as it gently caressed his, his mind flooded with thoughts of what might yet happen that night.

He moved his hand over to cover hers, letting it slide over her soft skin, and his fingers found their way between hers.

She turned her attention to their hands, his fingers trying to intertwine with hers, but hers not moving even the smallest amount to allow them to do their bidding. She raised her eyes, looked at him, and said, "Peter, I have a good idea of what you want, but I..."

"What?" Peter asked as he waited for her to finish what she was going to say.

John Rivers backspaced over the previous words, and restarted the sentence.

"Hmm? Oh, yeah," continued Joanna as she found the words to say. "Peter, I know what you want and I'm not ready to give it to you."

"What? What's the problem? We've been seeing each other for..."

John again backspaced over the last few words and started retyping.

"What Peter? Why'd you stop? Don't you remember when we started dating?"

"Wow, um, yeah, of course, I was saying we've been together for almost..."

John again backspaced over more words, unsatisfied with the way the conversation was going.

"Peter, you don't remember? How can you not remember? Especially today!"

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, I do remember, honestly, I do. I don't know what happened, I suddenly lost the words."

"Oh, hogwash, Peter. You know very well when we started dating." Joanna stood, turned away from Peter, and took a couple of steps away from him.

Peter stood, hurried over to her, wrapped his arms around her waist to hug her, and she escaped his clutch, turned and said, "Peter! What are you..."

John paused, thought about where the story was going and decided to make a change.

"I'm just trying to give you a hug, darling." Peter wrapped his arms around her again.

Joanna unwrapped his arms, stepped away, and said, "Peter, we're through! I don't want to see you anymore! This had been happening too much, too often, and I won't put up with it anymore!"

"What? What are you talking about? It happened to you just a minute ago." Peter tried to make it sound light, almost flippant, but it didn't come across that way to Joanna.

"No, it didn't, I wanted to make sure I had made the right decision, that's all. And now I know I have, so this is it, goodbye, Peter." Joanna turned and walked away without a second look.

Peter was left standing, flabbergasted by the unexpected turn of events.

John stopped typing the words, thought, backspaced, and started writing again.

Peter stood there for only a moment, collected his thoughts, and chased after Joanna. When he caught up to her, he immediately stood in front of her, gazed into her eyes, took her in his arms, and said, "Joanna, I love you, don't leave me, ever."

"Oh, Peter, do you mean that?"

"What? Which part?"

"The forever part, of course."

"Oh, that part, yeah, well, sure, I suppose..."

John stopped, backspaced, thought about the words, and thought some more. Meanwhile, Joanna and Peter simply gazed at each other and waited.

"hmm, hmmmmm, hmm," Peter started humming as he waited for the words to come to mind.

An impatient Joanna excitedly waited for him, "What is it, Peter? Stop that stupid humming. You suppose what?"

John thought What should he do? Marry her? Tell her he misspoke? So, he thought some more.

Joanna looked at Peter, stared at him, both frozen in the moment.

John started typing again.

"Yes."

Joanna stepped back and said, "Yes? Yes what? Yes to I suppose?"

"Huh? No, no, sweetheart, Yes, to the forever part." Peter knelt, took Joanna's hand in his, and continued, "Joanna, darling, will you marry me?" His eyes focused on hers, the brown-haired beauty holding his hand, his mind whirling. He almost felt a little dizzy.

John sat back in his comfy leather chair, took a drink of coffee, a bite of banana-nut bread, gazed out the window, and thought, "What next? Does she accept? Or run away?" He started typing again, letting the words flow as they wanted.

Joanna thought for a moment, remembered that Peter couldn't remember when they started dating, which happened to be on her birthday, and that had been only a week before, and that thought burned inside her.

John took a drink of his coffee, looked over the words, and knew what was coming. His fingers continued typing.

She looked at Peter, kneeling there in front of her, eyes wide-open, smiling, anticipating a Yes, and she dropped his hand. She glared at him, and said, "You can't even remember when we started dating! Why on earth would I marry you?" And with that, she stomped away.

Peter was a statue which then fell over, but this one kept his head attached, but like a statue, he didn't move. Not for another half-minute. He then stood, brushed off the dust, went to his car, and drove away from the long-since beauty of the sunset.

John sat back, looked at the words, decided that was enough for the day, highlighted and deleted everything from the last sentence of the first paragraph.

Joanna continued watching the sun set, Peter watched her little finger as it gently caressed his, his mind flooded with thoughts of what life might be like with this woman. He quickly realized that was something he was prepared to do so he gently moved his hand up to his lap. Joanna felt a sudden pang of disappointment inside her as she realized this would be the last sunset they would share.