No Regrets

Week Three of Write On and I have tried to be creative again this week, the prompt was regrets and this was where it took me.

“No regrets.”  She told herself slowly placing each item into her small, battered suitcase.  It was easier than she thought.  All those times when she had considered doing it before had been swiftly followed by a flood of sadness and guilt and the case had remained under the bed.  Lurking in case of emergency.   She would often look at it and sigh about all the happy memories they had shared; weekends away with the girls, that club 18 to 30 holiday that they never spoke of again, the exciting trips to Paris when she got her first job and then the romantic weekends away with Robert.

The thought of Robert stopped her in her tracks.  The whole house enveloped her in an unusual silence, waiting for her reaction.  Her heart was beating faster than usual. This house had seen it all.  Their first night together, their first fight together.  Her breathing quickened and as the hot tears welled up behind her eyes, she knew that this sentimentality could not get the better of her.  The carefully folded pile of clothes had soon been put firmly in their place in the case and she shut the case with more force than she really felt.

Determination was what she needed.  She had to do this, after weeks, even months of putting it off, she had to pick herself up and take herself out of the door.

She stumbled quickly down the stairs, refusing to look and the array of happy family photos looking back at her.  Arriving at the hall, she felt giddy and steadied herself in front of the door.  She took a deep breath and opened the door.  Bright sunlight warmed her face and she basked for a moment in the glorious warmth of freedom when a beep from her mobile phone made her jump.  It was a message from Robert.  Maybe he was going to beg her to stay, say how much he was going to miss her, how he couldn’t cope without her.
Eagerly, she read the message already heady with the prospect of staying.

“Have a lovely weekend.  You deserve it.  R x”

She stared at the phone and the screensaver popped up with a photo of Robert’s smiling face holding their one year old daughter.  Her resolve was starting to ebb away.  She slammed the door behind her and picked up her suitcase.  No regrets.