Betrayal of Cupids Read Online Free PDF

splashed water over my face and grabbed the hand towel.  Much better.  I rubbed my eyes and stood up straight.  I pulled the bandages from my torso, as they needed changing.  With the amount of boxing injuries I had incurred over the years, I was a master at redressing wounds; it didn’t even faze me.  These wounds were different though.  They weren’t from a match.  These hit a little close to home.
    How long would it be until this became easy?
     

     
    I put on a suit.
    I walked to the cemetery.
    I watched as they put my Pops into the ground.
    I sat in the metal chair, feeling utterly alone.  A figure sat down next to me.  Out of the corner of my eye, I could see she was small, with short blonde hair.  She was wearing a giant black hat that was offering unwanted shade from the warming sun.
    I would’ve said something to her, but today it didn’t matter.  I didn’t care about her.  I didn’t care about anyone.
    I bowed my head, wishing to hide from the world.  The woman next to me shifted, and then placed her small hand in mine, wrapping her fingers around my knuckles. 
    I knew that hand.  I knew that skin.  I knew that warmth.  She pulled her hand away, leaving behind a small piece of paper.  The words could have stopped my heart.
    Saints do not move, though grant for prayers’ sake
    Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take…
    “Grace?”
    “Shhh.”
     

     
    Certain that no one followed us home, I pulled Grace through the front door.
    “What are you doing here?  How did you get away?”
    “I don’t know… I couldn’t… I had to…” She was stumbling over her words, but it didn’t matter to me.  I was in a complete state of shock.  When we were pulled from each other in the clubhouse parking lot after the deaths of our fathers, I never thought I’d see her again.  It wasn’t a question.  To me, it was a fact.
    And yet, there she was, standing in my Pop’s house, my house.  She had found me at his funeral and offered me her hand when I begged her to follow me home.
    “Grace.”  I moved toward her, taking her arms in my hands, but she froze and pulled away.  “What’s wrong?”
    “No.  It’s nothing.  I just…”
    I knew what it was.  It was the same distance I had seen in her after I pulled her off of Sean.  She was still hurting.  My Grace.  How could I make her pain go away?
    She sat on the couch, pulling her large hat from her head.  She then slid off the blonde wig, allowing her beautiful red hair to fall into her face.
    “Oh, thank God,” I sighed.
    “Excuse me?”  She eyed me.
    “Ha.  Sorry,” I teased, “you are beautiful either way, but…” I reached for her tousled curls, slipping them between my fingers.  “Well, I do love your red hair.”
    She mustered a smile.  “It’s just a wig.  I thought it would be a good idea, given the circumstances.”
    “It was.”
    We sat in silence, comforted by each other’s company, but not knowing what to say next.  I would have been fine with that.  Even her silence was a blessing compared to the emptiness that had filled my life for the past few days.  Still, I felt as though our minutes might be numbered.  Someone would be looking for her.  After an eternity, I broke the tension.
    “I wrote you a letter.”
    Her head turned and tilted.  “I wrote you one too,” she answered.
    She reached into her bag and pulled out an envelope.  I reached into my pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.
     
    We each read our letters.  It was easier than talking. 
    When we had finished, she looked up at me, and her face blushed.  There were no words, only a small nod.  I could see the tears forming in her eyes. 
    I sat next to her, dying to hug her, but I feared her reaction, her rejection.  She was closed off; she didn’t want my arms around her.
    But I wanted nothing more than to hold her close.  I had just watched my Pop’s body being lowered into the ground.  I had said goodbye