"Smile"

She did,

“Smile” like Jake had told her to from behind the camera.

Katie's face had shifted in and out of focus in the evening light, the soft edges of her blending with the blurred reds and blues of the surrounding streets. It was as if the cityscape and her were one and the only way to notice she was there at all would be to know her face down to the placement of each freckle.

Jake smiled remembering the process behind the photo he held in his hand. Her smile vivid in his mind even now.

The lying bitch.

Her words had hit him like gravel on a windscreen at 60 miles per hour. Hard and harsh.

“So...that’s it then?

“I suppose… I’m sorry Jake...really I am.”

“Goodbye.”

She had kissed him one last time on the cheek and he had watched her walk away into the busy city centre.

Hustling and bustling with vibrant life, it was a polar opposite representation of how he felt standing there alone in his expensive suit and watch, clasping an expensive bunch of flowers in which hidden around the rose in the middle was an expensive diamond engagement ring. The word ‘always’ engraved on the gold.

Jake had contemplated ending it right there. Stepping out into the road so he could be put to rest in his expensive suit in an expensive coffin. But he knew his mother wouldn’t be able to live through losing another son so soon after the 5 year anniversary, when the memories and pain were still so tender and fresh.

It was now a year ago since he watched the love of his life leave for the airport to go home to her husband. The husband he knew nothing of for the whole two years they were together. Jake stood now in the exact spot she had left him, clasping the last photo he had of her. He pulled out the lighter he had bought just for this purpose, clicked it and watched it spark before holding it to the photo and watching it burn. He dropped the still burning photo into a nearby bin before pouring water over the blaze, not willing to set the whole bin alight for her.

Jake turned away from the bin and started to head back to their spot but there was already someone standing there. A man around his age, with his old hair cut, taking a picture of a red haired girl, in the evening light.

A few feet away another man in an expensive suit and watch held an expensive bunch of flowers.

Jake felt his face go in and out of focus in the evening light, the soft edges of him blending with the blurred reds and blues of the surrounding streets. It was as if the cityscape and him were one and the only way to notice he was there at all would be to know his face down to the placement of each freckle.

“Smile” Katie said from the behind the camera.

And Jake did.