Free Edge of Disaster by A. M. Hargrove

house.  I picked you up on the way home.”
    Well, that made sense.  We entered his home and it was lovely.  Not overdone or stark like so many of the remodeled homes of today.  It was really perfect.  He had impeccable taste.  He had a series of beautiful paintings that lined the walls. 
    “This artwork is really amazing.”
    “Thanks. She’s a local artist. Laurie Meyer is her name.  I fell in love with her work a few years back and now I try to pick up some of her pieces whenever I can. She travels to various places and paints scenes from wherever she goes.  She doing a lot from Italy right now.”
    “Makes me want to go.”
    “Maybe we can work that in sometime.”
    I smiled, loving the idea but knowing it would never be.
    “Can I get you a glass of chardonnay?”
    “Only if that’s what you’re having.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “I don’t want you to open a bottle just for me.”
    “Alexia, I’d open the world just for you.”
    Okay, that’s so not what I expected him to say.
    “You don’t have to respond to that.  Is chardonnay your beverage of choice or would you prefer something else?”
    I smiled, “Chardonnay would be excellent.”
    He was the perfect gentleman. He handed me the glass of wine and poured himself one too.  We both grinned.  He put the bottle in a chiller and we headed to a living area.
    “Have a seat and make yourself at home.”
    He left for a moment and then I heard the music.  It was classical.  I should have guessed that.  I knew some classical music, but not much.
    He joined me again and said, “Don’t worry, it’s not all classical.  I’m not that dreary.  It’s a mix.”
    “I like classical. I think it’s beautiful.”
    He looked at me intently and said, “I think you’re telling me the truth and not just saying that.”
    I looked at him then and his eyes were so captivating.
    We both started to speak at the same time and then we laughed.
    He said, “You go first.”
    “I was just going to tell you that you have amazing eyes.”
    He laughed really hard then and said, “That’s interesting because I was going to tell you the exact same thing. Your eyes are quite lovely Alexia.  And I adore your name.  It’s beautiful. As is all of you.”
    My oh my. What to say now?
    “I need to tell you something Pearce.  Maybe this will bring to light a bit of me and my issues. Do you even want to hear it?”
    “A part of me doesn’t...at least not tonight.  I just want it to be you and me. Without anything else between us. But then the other part of me wants to get it out of the way.”
    “I don’t know if I’ll have to courage to bring this up again.”
    “Then by all means, you should tell me.”
    “A little over three years ago, the guy I was seriously dating was killed in a car wreck.”
    “Ah, I see.”
    “No, you don’t.  The thing is, we’d gotten into this huge fight.  Yelling at each other.  Pretty ugly actually.  It was about us getting married.  Anyway, I was really upset and I stormed out of the restaurant we were in.  He followed and begged me not to leave. I didn’t listen and got in my car, so he jumped in too and we headed down the road. It had been raining. We were still screaming at each other in the car.  It was all so stupid.  You know...hindsight, twenty-twenty and all. Anyway, I flew around this curve, lost control of the car and it flipped. The car ended up wrapped around a tree.  Peter was killed instantly.  I walked away with a few bruises. You know the typical story.  You see this crap all the time I’m sure. So this whole thing has really fucked me up and I’ve been dealing with it in a not so healthy way that we maybe can discuss at some later time.  I just thought you needed to know that.”
    Usually people immediately try to tell me it’s not my fault and blah blah blah. And then they try to hug me and get all sappy assed with me.  He did none of that.  But what he did do was get on his knees in