He looked surprised. “It turns out I can’t stand her. I hate her friends, her childish outfits, her na?ve outlook on life, and her silly sculptures. There was a time when I cared about her, but that time has long passed. We could be happy. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you, showing you every single day that I will never stray again.”
He took her face tenderly in his hands and kissed her mouth with anguish. Elly looked into his face, a face that she had built up in her own memory, a presence that was more fantasy than reality. The Aaron of her memories was a perfect man, seduced away by a scheming home wrecker – he was the one who got away. The Aaron standing in front of her, looking glorious and handsome in his tuxedo was a coward of enormous proportions, someone barely in control of his own life.
Elly blinked hard. “Goodbye, Aaron.” She turned to leave, breathing him in one last time.
“Elly, Elly…” He was begging now, tripping after her. “I didn’t mean to cheat on you, I mean, I did, but - I didn’t! It was out of desperation, I was hurting, my art was suffering! You were sad all the time because of your mother, and I didn’t know where else to turn – Elles, you were my muse!”
Elly whirled around and slapped him across the face. It was a hard, sharp impact and it echoed across the room with a loud crack. He wasn’t expecting the full force of her weight behind her hand, and he sprawled onto the floor, holding his face. Elly stood over him, Isaac flashing in her mind.
“YOUR MUSE?? YOUR MUSE?? If I hear one more person call me their muse, I will kill myself!” Elly paced back and forth, wanting to experience the fullness of her epiphany. “I just realized that the worst thing you can make someone is your muse, Aaron! Yes, we may inspire creation, or sometimes just crappy paintings, but the minute the artist’s work starts suffering, then the muse is dismissed. You tied yourself to this idea of the muse, rather than just realizing that you are to blame for your own lack of talent!”
Aaron staggered to his knees and stared at Elly. She smiled broadly. “You told yourself that breaking my heart was just collateral damage in your search for a way to get control of a gift that you never HAD. And now poor Lucia,” I really mean that, thought Elly, “Poor Lucia has fallen in love with you, and she is the next muse who will fail you. But in truth, you will fail her. I imagine in no time, you will be throwing yourself at another woman, the way you are throwing yourself at me now. This is not about art.”
Aaron reached for her, a red welt rising across his face where Elly’s ring had struck him. “Elly…”
“Shut up, Aaron.” Aaron reeled back, shocked. “You have no claim over me, not anymore. I have been living half a life without you, thinking that I could never get back that part of myself you stole. But in truth, my life is fuller now than it has ever been.” Her mind lingered on Kim, Snarky Teenager, Cadbury…and Keith? She pushed him from her thoughts. “I have a successful business and friends I love. Friends who love me. Clayton is the perfect town for me and I love my shop. The mess you left me with has kept me from seeing the truth of that, all this time. But not anymore.” She looked down at him condescendingly, unable to believe the words that were about to come out of her lips.
“I’m going to live my life now, without your shadow lurking in the corner of my mind.” She bent over and kissed him quickly on his red cheek. “Marry your muse, Aaron, and stay the hell away from me. Forever.”
With that, Elly turned on her heel and walked slowly away, past the shocked waiter who stared at her wide-eyed, witness to the entire confrontation. He raised his hand in a high five, and Elly slapped her palm against his.
The room radiated a brilliant glow as the sun poured through the west windows, warming Elly’s skin. She could hear Aaron’s weeping fade into the background as she left the past behind her. It felt as if a giant yoke had been lifted from her neck and the result was a giddy freedom. She relished each light step out of the ballroom and down the hallway, admiring the incredible flower arrangements that she had made on her way. She hit the elevator button with gusto and grinned to herself down the ten floors to the lobby level. Turning towards the exit, Elly caught her breath and swiftly ducked back behind a corner.