Percival

Today was a special day - January 23rd. The day of your wedding with Percival.

Percival was a wonderful man. You met completely by chance, one morning in a small cafe.

You were rushing to work and only stopped in for your favorite iced latte. After receiving your glass, you turned around—and immediately collided with a man. All the coffee spilled on him. You almost fell, but the man managed to catch your arm.

— Wow... Have I turned your head that much, my dear girl? May I treat you to another coffee?

You were taken aback, and then angry.

— Are you an idiot?! Ha. Why the hell were you standing so close?!

Without waiting for an answer, you glanced at the time, hissed in irritation, and hurried to the exit.

From that day on, you encountered this man again and again in the café every morning. He tried to talk to you, but you simply ignored him.

That fateful evening at work, you received a reprimand, and then learned you were being laid off due to department downsizing. Management had decided to retain only employees with more than four or five years of service, and you'd only been there for three years.

Upset, you went back into that same cafe.

And we saw him again.

"Oh... My princess, it's you," the man said with a smile, approaching you. "Well, and now? May I treat you to a cup of coffee?"

“It doesn’t matter anymore...” you answered dejectedly, sitting down at a table by the window.

Percival noticed your mood.

— Did something happen to you?

“I got fired,” you whispered quietly.

Then you struck up a conversation with Percy and learned it was his coffee shop. It turned out he had fifteen such establishments in the city and he owned the entire business.

You cried as you told him that you had been laid off from work, paid a small salary, and sometimes forced to work overtime.

Then Percy offered you a job with him, but you were too embarrassed to agree. Besides, you wanted to get a job in your field.

You spent the next two weeks sending out your resume to various companies. Finally, you received a response and happily headed to the company in the morning.

Luckily, you were hired. You started working again, but with a more flexible schedule, a great team, and a great management team. Your pay was several times higher than at your previous job.

By that time, Percival was writing to you almost every day, offering to meet.

And in your new company, a man of about thirty-five started hitting on you when you were only twenty-six. Percy once mentioned that he was twenty-eight.

One day you barely escaped from that annoying man and decided to call Percy.

• Hello...

— Hi, doll. You decided to call me? How sweet. Do you agree to go on a date? I've already decided everything. We'll go to a cafe, then to the park or the cinema...

Percy started to babble, but when he heard your sob on the other end of the line, he immediately fell silent.

• Hey?.. Princess, did something happen to you?

— Take me... Please... Tell me you're my boyfriend, my husband, my fiancé. Whoever. Take me.

From that fateful day onwards, you and Percy started dating.

Two years into your relationship, on July 4th, on the ocean shore where you were vacationing, Percy proposed, saying the wedding would be at the end of January. You immediately accepted, because you loved Percy more than anything in the world.

That day, you were up at five in the morning, ready for the wedding. You were wearing a magnificent, oversized dress with a train. Your hair was perfectly done and your makeup was lovely. On your finger was the engagement ring Percy had proposed with. You were overjoyed, already imagining the gold wedding band on your finger.

You were ready, and your friends were happy for you.

Lily and Rina stood next to each other.

"So... Should we take a taxi now?" Lily asked.

“I already called,” Rina said quickly, adjusting your veil.

— We're going down.

That's when the disaster happened.

A van was driving down the road, and the driver lost control and crashed into your taxi. You were sitting in the back, and the car hit your rear right side—exactly where you were.

You were the worst-hit. You suffered fractures, abrasions, and open wounds. Rina, who was sitting next to you in the back, was also injured. So was Lily. The driver was the least injured, suffering only a minor concussion.

You were immediately sent to intensive care by ambulance.

Percy stood in the registry office, waiting for you to appear. But instead, his friend burst in, breathing heavily.

— They... They were in an accident... They're taking her to intensive care. She was hurt the worst, Percy...

Then Percy rushed towards you.

He sat for ten hours at the doors of the intensive care unit, behind which the doctors fought for your life.

When the surgeon left, Percy immediately stood up and walked over to him.

• Well, how is she?

He was tired, his eyes red from crying. He was still wearing his wedding suit, and in his breast pocket was a white flower—your favorite white lilies.

"Her blood pressure has returned to normal, as has her heartbeat. We've stitched up the wounds and reset the bones in her right leg. Her life is no longer in danger. Now she needs to rest and gather her strength to recover. She suffered a concussion, and we're worried she might develop temporary amnesia. But don't worry, she'll come around."

For two months, while you were in a coma, Percy came to your room every day.

By that time, your friends had already recovered and come to their senses. They also visited you often, seeing a sad Percival who would sit next to you for hours, squeezing your hand.

And when you woke up, you didn't recognize him. And neither did Lily.

A huge chunk of memory, the size of three years, has disappeared from your life.

You only remembered Rina, with whom you had been friends since university.

Then Percy's world came crashing down.

He visited you for six months, helped you with your rehabilitation, and tried to remind you of your life together. That you were going to your wedding with him.

But you didn't remember.

Memories gradually began to return. Each day, you remembered more and more. One day, you remembered Lily. She burst into tears, hugging you tightly.

But in Percy you still saw a stranger.

When you were discharged from the hospital, you returned to your apartment.

And Percy saw you every day, but he understood that now you considered him a stranger.

Sometimes at night he cried in his bedroom, remembering how before the wedding you lived together in his apartment.

He continued to send you flowers every day.

White lilies.

You yourself didn’t understand why, but your heart was drawn to this stranger.

One day you managed to remember how you first met.

And that evening, when the memory finally returned, you went outside.

There you saw him.

He was walking with a bouquet of flowers and didn't notice you right away. But when he saw you, he stopped and turned around.

You turned around too, looking at him.

• Princess?..

"You... Percy? Is that right?" you asked quietly, approaching him.

For some reason, you no longer wanted to drive this man away.

You were driving to your wedding and got into an accident.