Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
The Red Rooster stood on a ramshackle plot of land, overgrown with tall weeds. The exterior walls were covered in plywood, dirty shingles, and graffiti. One of the windows was broken, exposing an expanse of strange, murky darkness. Lennox rolled down his truck window and leaned out, looking up. The sky above was dreary, full of unspent tears. Dark, bloated clouds clustered together, holding each other tight, squeezing one another as the sky lit up with streaks of gold and silver. He turned his truck off, but left the music playing. ‘Lovely,’ by Billie Eilish and Khalid wailed through his speakers. He made his way slowly around the truck and opened the passenger’s side door.
Nadia looked around, then turned to him, confusion and sadness in her dark eyes, yet she remained quiet. He took her hand, helping her step out of the vehicle. Her left foot extended, covered in a black ballet style shoe. It landed softly on the pebbled ground, and then the other followed. Closing the door behind her, he took her hand in his.
“This is where it all started.” He walked with her towards the plywood-covered front door of the restaurant. A rusty chain was wrapped around it. “The Red Rooster is gone. Kyser died, ending a legacy.” Kyser had been the owner of the place. He was an old, widowed Jewish guy who’d been raised in the South, and was up in age when he and Nadia worked for him. “It looks the same, yet so different.” He peered inside the broken window. Unable to make much out, he used his phone as a light.
They rested their bodies together, side by side, regarding the inside of the building as if star gazing. He could hear their breathing, in sync. The tables inside were all covered in dirt. Some were missing. Some chairs were stacked as if they’d been prepared for business for the following day. He looked at an untouched serviette dispenser, still full of white napkins as if it had just been set out. The horrible yellow and white tile floor was covered in soot, but the menu, written in chalk on a big board, still hung there like some trophy:
Special of the Day: Steak, cabbage and potatoes.
Dessert of the Day: Peach cobbler
“I haven’t been here since my last day way back then.” She squeezed his hand. “I have to be honest. I missed it a little. There were some good people here. But mainly, I was missin’ you.” He turned away from the window and looked into her eyes. “When I look at it now, like this, all run down, it kinda reminds me of me when I left here. Only the ugliness wasn’t on the outside, but on the inside. I was full of hurt, but full of promise, too. I got out there and got smacked around by the world. I lost focus. Too much had happened. Too many sins and not enough blessings. I ended up emotionally dilapidated. Just like ol’ Red Rooster here. But she still stands…” She smiled sadly at the structure. “Scars, bruises and all. She still stands.”
They both studied the sign of the place that still hung outside on two tall metal poles. Red letters that used to glow with light when the darkness came. Now they were an old, dried-up rust colored, instead of the vibrant crimson from so long ago. A drop of rain fell on his head, then another. They both peered up at the sky. He cupped her chin, made her face him, and the most beautiful smile creased her face. Like an upside-down rainbow.
“We owe a lot to this restaurant.” He knocked on the wood. “This is where I met the woman I love. The woman God designed just for me. The lady I had no idea I’d be infatuated with to the point where I thought about you even in my dreams. That infatuation turned to more. So much more.”
The rain began to come down harder, now soaking through their clothing. On a deep breath, he dropped down to one knee in front of her, then reached into his pocket.
“Lennox…” she whispered, appearing stunned.
As he pulled out a jewelry box, her eyes grew big as dinner plates, and her mouth opened as if she were going to scream. He opened the black ring box, exposing a solitary blue diamond ring, pear shaped. Like a raindrop. He took her hand and looked up into her eyes. Rain was falling faster now, causing the waves in her hair to flatten against her scalp. The rain webbed between her long lashes and dotted her skin like freckles. She looked pretty in the rain. She was new in the rain. She was home, in the rain.
“Nadia Jazmine Deere, would you do me the honor of bein’ my wife? Will you marry me?”