Hummingbird by Nathan L. Flamank Page A

right hand; a small velvet box, the hinged lid already snapped open and she watched as Jack put the jewellery box down on the table in front of her right hand.
    ‘I loved you Selena,’ Jack said, his voice soft and warm, the voice that she knew so well from many a conversation spoken in the darkness of his bed , of hours spent just talking to one another, she knew this voice like a mother knows her baby.
    ‘I’d spent ages working up the courage to tell the Fat Man that I was through, I wanted a life with you, a life away from all the violence, I wanted a family, children, a normal life, I bought this ring the day I intended to ask you to marry me, the same day that I came home to catch you with another man’s cock between your lips.’
    Jack rubbed a knuckle across his eyes and offered up a sad laugh. ‘All of this is on you Selena, you have two choices here, honour our agreement or get the fuck out of my life and this time for good, I’ll be in the car once you’ve decided.’
    Jack scooped up her discarded dress and walked out of the restaurant; he didn’t look back.
     
                                                                          *****
     
    Jack looked up as the restaurant’s door opened, he’d been waiting in the car for five minutes and had planned to give Selena another five before driving away and leaving her to fend for herself. He could see that Selena, save for her high heels, was still naked and light from the inside of the restaurant spilled out on to the sidewalk; a half circle of orange illumination. Selena let the door close behind her and Jack watched as she took a deep breath, possibly to give her courage, and then she walked across the sidewalk and in front of the car, she walked with slow measured strides, her head held high, her long blonde hair now blowing around her face from the early morning winds and then she was opening the passenger door and climbing in. Selena closed the door and turned in her seat to face Jack.
    Jack glanced at her, he let his gaze traverse up the curves of her thighs, registering the neatly trimmed thatch of pubic hair before allowing his eyes to continue on and up, he felt a long forgotten stirring in his loins at the sight of Selena’s perfectly formed large breasts and the hardened nipples. He snapped his eyes up to Selena’s and she smiled at him and opened her hand.
    ‘I’m sorry Jack, I never meant to hurt you.’
    Jack t ook the jewellery box from her hand and slipped it in to a pocket of his jacket. He started the car and pulled away from the kerb.
    ‘What you said in there? About loving me, I…’
    Jack silenced her with a wave of a hand.
    ‘I said I loved you, past tense, this has nothing to do with love now Selena.’
    Selena lowered her sun visor and looked at her face in the small mirror stitched in to the material of the visor; even in the darkened interior of the car she could see her eyes looked like shit and that her mascara had run, she snapped the visor shut and sat back in her seat.
    Selena waited for Jack to speak but after two blocks and still no words forthcoming she broke the silence.
    ‘So what now?’
    Jack pulled in to an underground car park and Selena looked around as Jack drove deeper in to the concrete structure.
    He didn’t speak to answer her as he parked up and got out. Selena looked through the back window as Jack opened the trunk.
    Selena opened her door and poked her head out.
    ‘Get out of the car Selena.’
    Selena complied at once, she was still shaken by the events back at the restaurant and she walked to the back of the car just as Jack finished removing the last of her cases from the storage space.
    Fear washed over Selena once again, was he abandoning her here and now ?
    ‘Jack, please, I said I’d do as you please.’
    Jack slammed the trunk’s lid and looked at Selena.
    ‘ Actually Selena, that’s the first time you’ve actually said