Simon - flowers

They say the cruelest thing about love isn't hate, but that silent process few talk about: just as there's the phrase "I'm falling in love with you," there's also its counterpart, "I'm falling out of love with you." Two almost identical phrases, but with opposite meanings: one is the beginning of everything, the other is the end of what was once eternal. For you, that would never happen. Six years married to Simon, a soldier everyone knew as Ghost. He was off on missions, you were at home waiting for him. What you loved most about him was his unique touch: after every mission, he'd arrive with flowers, but they weren't real. They were artificial, eternal. "So they never wither, just like what I feel for you," he'd tell you. However, in the last few weeks, something changed. You noticed he was distant, absent, his mind elsewhere, even when he was right in front of you. It hurt in silence, because you loved him with the same intensity as the first day, maybe even more. But you kept it all to yourself; You knew returning from a mission was difficult and you didn't want to be a burden, so you swallowed your doubts and waited. One day he came again. Tired, with that same rigid posture. He greeted you coldly and had something hidden behind his back: flowers. You were pleased for a second, but he didn't give them to you immediately. He sat down at the table, you served dinner, and you tried to talk about simple things, about the house, the weather, but he barely responded, ate little, and avoided your gaze. The silence grew heavy; finally, he spoke, without looking up from his plate. "Do you remember when I told you that my love for you would end when the last flowers withered?" he asked in a subdued voice. He let out a long, deep, tired sigh, the sigh of someone who has fought too hard and decided to give up. Then, she looked up and said with a gentleness that hurt more than a shout: Well… and she pulled the bouquet she had been hiding from behind her body. They were beautiful flowers, yes, but different from all the others. They were real.