Red

“Liz, come on, are you ready?” John calls up the stairs, leaning against the railing.

“John, hold on, I’m trying to get my shoes on,” Elizabeth yells back down to him, sitting on the end of the bed they’ve shared for three and a half years, cramming her feet into heels that are obviously much too tall for her to even try to walk in. She looks up when she hears footsteps approach their bedroom door. John laughs, causing her to narrow her eyes at him.

“Baby, how are you even going to walk?”

“I’ll manage,” she says curtly, standing up, only to trip over her own feet and land in John’s arms.

“God, I told you. I’ll have to carry you everywhere we go.”

Lizzie grinned. “I don’t think I’d mind that.”

John rolled his eyes at her, smiling. “Why don’t you change them? Do you really want to break an ankle tonight?”

Liz sighs, leaning her head against John’s shoulder. “John, it’s your mom’s birthday dinner. I want to look nice.”

“Liz, you could wear jeans, a t-shirt and flip flops and still look ‘nice’,” he says, grinning and kissing her forehead. Liz smiles back up at him, sighing.

“Are you sure?” Liz asks, taking the heels off of her already sore feet and walking to the closet to grab a pair of flats. “Are you sure I’ll look alright?”

John sits on the bed, cocking his head and letting his eyes travel up and down her petite body. “Oh yeah, you definitely look alright,” he says, grinning and winking.

“You pig,” Liz laughs, smacking his shoulder. John kisses her lips, bringing a hand up to rest at the base of her neck, the other at the small of her back.

“John, we have to go, we’re going to be late,” she whispers, smiling against his mouth.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he says, placing one more kiss on her lips before leaving the room and walking down the stairs. “I’ll go start the car,” he shouts over his shoulder.

“Okay, I’ll be down in a few minutes!”

Liz sighs, grabbing her purse and jacket, turning the light off and closing the bedroom door.

“Be careful, babe,” John says to her, reaching for her hand and guiding her down the front steps. “The rain made everything slippery.”

Liz nods, smiling at him; thanking him when he opens the door for her, helping her into the car.

John walks around to the driver’s side and gets into the car. “Ready, Lizzie?”

Liz smiles. “I love when you call me that. And yes, as a matter of fact, I am.”

John grins, rubbing her thigh and kissing her forehead before putting the car into gear, pulling out of their driveway. Liz lets out a long sigh.

“Liz, c’mon, you’ll be ok. We’ve had family dinners hundreds of times before! You know my parents love you like the daughter they always wish they had. C’mon, baby,” John says, taking his right hand off the steering wheel and placing it in hers. “You’ll be fine. I promise.”

“I know, John. I realize that we’ve had family dinners before, but that’s all they were; family dinners. This is for your mom’s birthday.”

John laughs, shifting in his seat. “Liz, you’re being ridiculous.”

Liz rolls her eyes at him. “You just don’t get it because you’ve never met my parents.”

John turns to face her, his jaw clenched. “Excuse me? You think I don’t get it? I understand you’re nervous, babe. Hell, I would be, too, if it was the first time you’re seeing them. But Liz, baby, you know what they’re like.”

Before she could even respond, they were both startled by a loud noise. “John, is that-“

John grabs her hand.

Liz and John met the way almost every couple meets nowadays: in a quaint little coffee shop in Tempe, right near the college. It was spring break. Liz had spilled her drink all over the front of John’s favorite shirt, pissing him off so bad he’d nearly yelled at the poor girl.

That was when he’d realized how breathtakingly beautiful she was. She quite literally made his jaw drop. She’d apologized to him so many times her throat hurt, but he’d said it was okay. He didn’t mind. Let me buy you another one, he’d said.

The two sat down at a table in the corner, settling into two chairs directly across from each other, and when they left, they each knew nearly everything about the other. John’s music, dropping out of Arizona State University, how he’d never really had a serious relationship. Elizabeth’s poetry, being a sophomore in Arizona State University, how she’d never really had a serious relationship, either.

“I’ve never told anyone any of this before,” Liz had said, giving John a small smile and brushing her bangs back behind her ears.

John had pursed his lips, running a hand through his own hair. “I guess I haven’t really, either,” he said, taking his bottom lip between his teeth and tapping his fingers on the table. Liz smiled again, bigger this time.

“Good.”

John found himself smiling more in the presence of this woman than he had in the past four months. They just clicked. She made him blush more than he’d ever blushed in his life.

Liz knew then that she’d never be able to go a day without seeing this man’s smile, hearing his laugh, his voice. She knew that this was the man she wanted to wake up to every morning, fall asleep with every night. She wanted to hold his hand so tight that her hand would hurt.

She never thought that eventually all of that would be taken from her without any warning.