By Julie Brandon 

Eleanor sat on the park bench holding the sealed envelope in her hand. Even though she knew what was in it, she just couldn’t bring herself to open it. How could David allow Cecily to be so cruel? Surely, he knew that Eleanor wasn’t completely over him. Who was she kidding? She wasn’t over him at all. Eleanor shook her head. Thankfully, David would never know how many nights she stared at old photos of him. To be truthful, she was a little worried about her inability to move on. The cream-colored envelope in her hand was proof that he had. Eleanor’s mother kept trying to convince her to join a club, an online dating site, something that would get her out of the house and perhaps meet someone new. She wasn’t getting any younger, her mother would murmur. Every time she said it, Eleanor had to resist the urge to run to the mirror and look for gray hairs.

This was ridiculous. She gave herself a little shake. It’d been two years. Two years since he’d broken off their engagement saying he needed to figure out what he really wanted. Apparently, it was Cecily. Eleanor should have known something was in the wind when they’d met her at a party and David’s eyes lit up. He and Cecily had belonged to the chess club in college and were overjoyed to see each other again. David tried to teach Eleanor to play but she was helpless at it. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn’t remember which piece moved where. Soon after the party, Cecily invited David to play a game at a local coffee shop. Eleanor was relieved. Finally, he’d stop bugging her to play. And he did. She never gave it a moment’s thought until the day he’d told her it was over. By then, it was too late. David and Cecily’s love of chess had blossomed into another kind of love and Eleanor was left behind. She remembered how it felt when she dropped her engagement ring into his outstretched hand. How he quickly closed his hand into a fist around it, as though she’d snatch it back. 

Eleanor has seen the engagement announcement on social media. She’d idly wondered if David had bought Cecily a new ring. Of course, he did. No woman wants to wear the cast-off ring from the cast-off fiancée. Eleanor sighed. She didn’t have to open the envelope. She could toss it in a park trash can and walk away. But she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Her mother was right. It was time to move on. Maybe not a dating site but she could take a class at the community college. Pottery or guitar. Anything but chess. Taking a deep breath, Eleanor opened the envelope and pulled out the engraved invitation. As wedding invitations go, it was lovely. She reached into her purse for a pen. She signed the RSVP card, inserted it into the stamped return envelope and sealed it. On her way out of the park, Eleanor spotted a blue mailbox. She dropped the envelope in and with a spring in her step, continued on her way. 

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Julie Brandon is a poet, playwright, lyricist, and storyteller. Her work has been published in Bewildering Stories, Corner Bar Magazine, Bright Flash Literary Review, Altered Reality, Fresh Words, Mini Plays Magazine, To Write of Love During War:Poems, Wicked Shadow Press: Dead Girl Walking anthology, Mask of Sanity: The Monster Within, Rio Grande Valley International Poetry Festival Anthology: Boundless, Kibbutz Gezer International Exhibit, Detangled Brains and others. Julie’s book of poetry, My Tears, Like Rain, was publish June 2024. Two of her short plays have been produced by Broken Arts Entertainment and Theatrical Shenanigans podcasts. She lives near Chicago, Illinois.