in three months' time

a short fictional piece.

from pinterest

Smoke engulfed the room and enveloped the large group seated at the English roulette table. Every member sat with bated breath as the game progressed, the clattering harmonizing with the other sounds one can hear only at a casino.

She sat at the far end of the table, gazing down at the black and red chips stacked on the table and the game board trimmed in gold. Her brown locks were pinned back with a diamond clasp, and the black gown hugged her body in all the right places. A baguette diamond glistened on her manicured finger, and she straightened her back as she looked at the ring before glancing at the rest of the room. Her green eyes darted between faces peering through the smoke of the cigars puffed on in the room. It was clear to a loitering bystander that she was waiting for someone.

“Have you been waiting long, ma chérie?” a French-accented voice whispered in her ear, and she tilted her head in anticipation of the kiss on her exposed shoulder that would follow.

“Just long enough,” she responded, a smile plastered on her face as she turned in her seat and regarded the clean-shaven Frenchman with icy eyes. She felt her insides boil as he took her by the hand and led her away from the English roulette. The baguette diamond suddenly felt unusually heavy on her finger. She would have liked to watch the rest of the game.

She would have also liked an oval solitaire cut.

“But he is so good to you!'“ her mother had exclaimed when she confided in her of how she truly felt about the match after the whirlwind proposal on the dance floor at the jazz club just three months prior.

“Mother, you know nothing,” she had muttered, and the conversation was never had again. Instead, she was now lost somewhere in a casino in Monte Carlo with a dreadful and boorish Frenchman she was set to marry in three months’ time.

She felt sick to her stomach whenever the impending nuptials crossed her mind. Could he not sense how she truly felt about him? How disgusted and repulsed she is by his presence? By his mere existence in her life? If he does sense it, he does not say anything. His pride is intact. He was adamant about her, and, truth be told, she was a little afraid to discover what would happen if she were to reject his advances once more.

Instead, she was now lost somewhere in a casino in Monte Carlo with a dreadful and boorish Frenchman she was set to marry in three months’ time.

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