It was not supposed to end like this. Samuel would have preferred an intimate setting, perhaps a sexy tequila bar uptown or one of the dim café bistros where he proposed to Ursula 14 months ago.
Out of his element and without any props to charm and sway, Samuel looked down at the greyish white subway floor, stalling for time. He had hoped to find a suitable answer to his dilemma; but instead, the bleak floors lined with cracks and soot, seemed to foreshadow a negative outcome.
“I’ll find a solution!” he said in his most earnest voice; “give me more time!” His eyes searched Ursula’s face as she leaned against the subway pole. Her watery eyes and anguished look alarmed him; she avoided his gaze, but allowed herself to sink into his chest, burrowing her face into his neck. He gripped her body with his lean sculpted arms. Good! he thought, smiling as she clung to him. I’ve got more time!
“Do you want a Fall wedding?” he whispered, in a deep voice, as she traced her fingers along his shoulders. Her caresses eased his doubts about this impromptu meeting and led him to surmise that she might have accepted Dawn and Mika back home as family.
But…Ursula’s sensual embrace was only her way of retaining the memory of their passion and desire.
“The engagement is off,” she said calmly as she unlocked her arms from around his neck. “You said that Dawn and Mika would be gone in a year… they're still with you…nothing has changed.” She tugged at her ring finger until the engagement ring yielded, and then to Samuel’s dismay, quickly thrust it into his right pants pocket and stepped back. “Maybe, we just aren’t that compatible.” she said, with a deadpan face.
Rush hour had begun, and commuters were rapidly filling the station. Samuel stunned and embarrassed by the return of the ring, averted his gaze to the shoes, and boot-clad feet brushing past him. “Watch for the closing doors!” shouted the conductor of a southbound train filled with passengers.
As commuters pushed in front of him, Samuel struggled with a reply but decided that enough had been said for one evening and watched the departing train leave the station with Ursula seated inside.
Damn! he thought, furrowing his brow, I just needed more time to get things right! Shaking his head, he left the subway station and hurried home, concerned that his absence for hours would make Mika nervous. She bored easily unlike the angelic Dawn.
That night, when Samuel unlocked his apartment door, he sighed with relief that all was well. Mika stretched her body and leaped up into the air squealing with delight. Dawn gazed at him affectionately with her beady black eyes and rolled back and forth on the rug as she bared her razor-like teeth. Irk, irk, they chattered hunching their bodies in that distinctive pose known by ferrets.
Samuel dutifully checked the food pail and saw that the thawed frozen mice and chicken embryos had been completely consumed. “Good job girls,” he said smiling as he popped open a can of beer and sank into his Laz-y-boy chair as his pets leaped onto his lap.
“Ursula will love you all one day,” he said wistfully, as he stroked their dark sable fur. “Why wouldn’t she?”
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