Robert, Her Billionaire Widower

“That is my favorite album by him,” said Vanessa. “I can’t believe you’ve listened to it. Did you like it?”

“I absolutely loved it,” said Robert. “It’s the kind of music you feel in your very soul. I felt so honored to be listening to it, I felt like I was being granted some kind of immense privilege that not a lot of people get to experience. I felt like I was being granted a great honor. What was the first Mingus song you ever listened to?”

“Moaning,” said Vanessa. “The one that he did with the whole band, the Art Blakey jazz standard.”

“That was utterly phenomenal!” said Robert. “That was quintessentially big band jazz. I can’t believe he surpassed Art Blakey by playing that song even better than him. It was utterly exceptional, and I still get chills while listening to it. In fact, I’m getting chills right now just thinking about it!”

They spoke like this for hours and hours. They spoke of music, and after music they spoke of food. After food they spoke of other things such as what they liked about movies and which era of film was the best in recorded history. They spoke about anything and everything, and in doing so they developed an intimacy that was somewhat hard to see. It was the careful, contained intimacy of two people that weren’t sure of what the other person felt. It was the kind of intimacy that could blossom into full love or die out before it had a chance to grow, and each of those potential scenarios was equally possible.

They did not know it yet, but this was the beginning. This was the first instance of the spark reaching dry wood and setting it alight. The inferno was still a long way off, but before that there was going to be a fanning of the flames and in a lot of ways this was what was happening right now. They were fanning each other’s flames of love.

Vanessa had no idea that she was developing the very thing that she had always wanted with Robert. A comfortable sort of intimacy, the intimacy that does not come with unnecessary passion or intensity that can so often lead to bad situations and make one feel like they are no longer in control of the situation that they are in. She had no idea that what she was feeling was so utterly beautiful that years later the very memory of this moment would warm her up inside.

She didn’t realize that she had succeeded. She had succeeded in making Robert forget, even if it was for the briefest of moments. She had succeeded in making Robert realize that life goes on, and that in the process of living you can heal. The scar remains, but given time even that fades and what is truly beautiful is the fact that the process of scars fading never really causes any pain unless you pick at the scar and open it up again.

Robert did not think of Marie for the first time in a very long time. After Vanessa left it was a long time before he thought of her as well. He thought of Vanessa, of how beautiful she was, how passionate, how kind, and without even realizing it he took several steps in the right direction. Without realizing it he had started to heal, and the process would end up saving his life.