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He looked at her as she walked away. It was the thing that killed him the most. Watching her leave from his life. But there she went. He signed, sitting back in the chair and running his hand over his face, then into his hair. The hand that had once held her hand resting on the nape of his neck.The shop girl came over and put the bill down and smiled sadly at him. He pulled his card out, sliding it in the little slot. He pulled his phone out and looked at it. There was a text notification. He opened it. Is is over?He looked at the three simple words and opened the text. He texted back simply. It is, I hope you're happy now. He shut his phone down. The girl with his card came back and sat it down on the table. He simply signed his name, leaving a huge tip for not very much of a bill and stood up. He walked to the front of the restaurant and stood there on the street in the middle of the night. He turned towards where his bike was parked. Wondering if he could make a bike accident like not like he had ended it all. He sighed turning the corner. She sat there on his bike, chewing her nail. He walked over to her and stopped just short of her. “What are you doing?”“Thinking, I don’t care if she says we have to stop. I love you.” She said quietly. Jai reached out and grabbed her quickly up in his arms. He wrapped himself around her and kissed her. He pulled away from her and looked down at her. “It’s going to get ugly before it gets better and I can’t promise it won’t be another year before we can be together without her being there in some way.”She nodded. "I know I am willing to wait." She sighed and touched his face. "I just…canot believe that this isn't true love."He sighed and took her face in his hands. “It is Audrey, it is.” -------He watched as they loaded her onto the gurney. Her hand laying lifeless on her chest. The red and blue lights casting shadows on her pale skin. He watched as the zipper went up and around her. He stood there, in the pouring rain, watching her being rolled into the back of a van. He didn’t even know that it was him making the primal noise he heard until he sat back on his heels. the screams and sobs pouring from him, his face was beaten by the heavy rain that fell on his face. A police officer came over and stood next to him, saying nothing for a long time. Finally, he spoke. “Mr. Courtney, we…we need you to come to the station and give us your side of the story.”He wanted to lay there, in the mud, his face pressed into the wet grass. He didn’t want to move again. Not until he could be with Audrey. He looked up at the man and simply nodded. --------He sat there on the bed, looking out the window. He was slowly working on his tie. He knew he was going to have to speak, it was Dina’s sentencing. He finished, simply sitting there, not doing anything for a long time. He knew she came to him. In great moments of stress, he could smell her perfume. He inhaled deeply and there it was. Jasmine. He turned and looked at the bed to where she had slept. He expected to see her sitting there, in her sundress. But there was nothing but empty space. He let out a long breath. The one that he had been holding the last year and a half. Since that night. He stood quietly, walking to the bedroom door. He looked at the spot on the floor, still stained, a dark spot that was a constant reminder that the one love that he had been allotted had died there. He really should pull those boards up, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. He needed that reminder, that place where her heart stopped, his name hanging on her lips. He walked through the house, towards the door. He smelled the jasmine again. He looked around. Nothing. Not even a whisper of her. Jai sighed. He went to the counter where his keys sat, the smell of the jasmine overwhelmed him. He looked towards where the back door was, and there she stood. Jai felt the breath suck out of his chest. He strained to keep his eyes open, for fear that if he blinked she’d disappear. “Audrey.” He said nearly silently. She simply smiled at him and gave him the little wave she did when he would look into the window to see her as he worked in the yard. He took one step towards her and just like that, in a blink of an eye, she was gone. He took a deep breath. He knew he was going to need it. ------ “Mr. Darling, is your client ready to give his victim impact statement?” The judge asked. Jai nodded, and his attorney looked up at the judge. “Yes, your honor." He said quietly.Jai stood, buttoning his jacket. He couldn’t help the feeling that the handful of steps between where he sat and the podium felt like a mile. He took the paper from his pocket. He took a moment and then spoke. “Audrey Grace was 27 years old. She had long been the girl that I loved. Why she loved me, I wasn’t sure. There was a night about a year or so before this happened that I tried to end it with her. Dina had asked me to, and in an effort to protect the woman I love, from the woman who was obsessed with me I capitulated.” He took a deep breath and looked at the jury. “You know the story of how it happened. How Dina broke in, hid and shot her in cold blood. You heard me give my side of the story, what I saw, what happened in the aftermath. But what you really didn’t get a chance to hear about what who Audrey was.”He looked at a spot just over one of the juror's head. He continued. "Audrey had a laugh that sounded somewhere between a fog horn and a goose in heat. She tried so hard to hold it in, but it was in her unbridled joy that she would let that bad boy fly. It, in turn, would make me laugh to the point I nearly wet myself. "He smiles a little. "I've not laughed that hard since that night. She was telling me a story on the way in the house, foghorn laugh blaring. I could hear her laughing herself up the stairs before it all ended." He steadied himself. "She was laughing before just before we got home, at dinner, she told me I was going to be a father and she thought it was so funny that I dropped my ice cream in my lap."Jai could feel his voice get shaky. “I was denied the chance to grow old with the woman I loved. The only one that I loved. I was denied the chance to ask her to marry me, I had the ring. I was going to propose that night, but then well, she threw me off guard. I have been denied the chance to be a father. The only way the coroner could even tell she was pregnant was a blood test, there was nothing to see yet. We had a whole future ahead of us." The tears welled in his eyes. "If you only get one love in your whole life, she was mine. There will never be another. Ever."He turned and looked directly at Dina. “I was denied my whole life, and you should be denied yours.”He reached and took his papers and went to sit back down by his lawyer. Cold and unfeeling as the jury left to contemplate her fate. -----He looked down at the handful of tiny white bricks. He signed his name on the note. He knew the cleaning lady would be in tomorrow. He knew his family would understand. He knew he’d be with her. He put the handful in his mouth and took the water. He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes.