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Eva and I dropped the kids off at school and left for the clinic to get the results of some tests the doctor had sent me for.
When we arrived at the clinic, the pain intensified, it seemed that the painkillers were not doing their job and this was compounded by my irritability because I had not had my first coffee of the day.
So I told Eva to go to the clinic lab and request the results in my name, while I would go to the cafeteria where I would wait for her with two good coffees and something to eat.
When I arrived at the cafeteria, a beautiful woman with wavy hair, brown eyes and a skin that looked like divine cinnamon, served me and invited me to sit at a table to take my order. In my thoughts appeared the order:
-Stay with me all my life, that is my order.
But as always being a brute, I did not leave it in my thoughts but expressed it in words. I felt sorry, but the girl was not offended and smiled at me.
That smile immediately relieved the pain I was feeling, it worked better than painkillers, and a smile like the ones shown in love movies appeared on my face.
But without knowing the reason, I turned to look at the entrance of the store, and Eva was looking for me with her eyes.
I swallowed thickly. I ordered the coffee and food from the beautiful woman and took out my cell phone so there would be no more eye contact. Yes, it was the end of the conversation with the waitress because I was in mortal danger if Eva saw me talking to her.
The scare had been provoked because in Eva's face, I observed the same thing I had seen when she was upset or disturbed. I was sure I was going to be reprimanded for talking nicely to the waitress.
Eva approached me and in her hands, she had the test results, she wanted me to read them. I knew she had read them; there was no correspondence from me that she did not open, she never respected privacy. I told her that if she had already read them, she should tell me what was written there.
She told me without anesthesia:
-You have cancer, and you are going to die.
At that moment I entered a bubble where there was no sound, everything became foggy and the words' cancer and death were blaring in my brain.
At that moment the beautiful waitress arrived with our order. She looked at me and realized that I was troubled, I looked into her eyes as if looking for comfort, a hug, but nothing of the sort happened; Eva was there.
When I managed to get out of the bubble, I took a sip of coffee and my thoughts seemed to organize. I looked at Eva and felt no comfort. I decided to call the doctor and tell him the news.
The doctor immediately told me to go to another laboratory, one more specialized in my pathology, and that when I had the results I should call him at any time.
Hanging up, I took a deep breath and took another sip of coffee. This one was longer, I almost emptied the cup.
I signaled the waitress to bring two more and bit into a piece of croissant that was filled with turkey ham, spinach, and cream cheese.
I started talking to Eva indicating that since I was going to die, it was my responsibility to let go of some things I had been holding on to. Eva looked at me with a wide-eyed question mark on her face as she drank her second cup of coffee.
I told her that I had not felt anything for her for a couple of years, that I could not stand her presence, her voice, her foolishness. That I had continued living with her so as not to affect the children and because I had not dared to propose a divorce; that I had been a coward. At the same time that I was saying those words, in my thoughts, an idea of suicide and its different modalities was forming.
She answered me something, but I don't remember it because my attention was directed to the envelope. I opened it and began to read what the lab results said.
Nowhere in the results did they say that I had cancer, everything indicated that I was healthy, that I had a pathology that could be cured with conventional medicine; I was not going to die before the age of 105.
The question was:
-Where did this woman get the idea that I had cancer?
I was provoked to hire an executioner and give her to him, but at the same time, I thought I was in a great predicament, I had confessed to him that I didn't want her; like it was better to be sentenced to die.
When I saw that she was going to insult me for my confession, I jumped up and complained about her irresponsibility for telling me I had cancer. She got up in a rage and left.
That was my last coffee when I was going to die and Eva was the person who accompanied me during that sad moment.
Now I am happy to tell this story over a cup of coffee and remember that cinnamon skin in the coffee shop.
Believe it or not, this happened to me in 2013.
Original content is written exclusively for #STB Creative Writing Prompt - Week 32 - Option 2
I use CANVA to edit the images you see in my publications.
It is my responsibility to share with you that, as a Spanish speaker, I have had to resort to the Deepl translator to be able to share my original content with you.