So he bought it. Others around him did not know that there was no “her”. And he was no longer buying it for “her” as he had once wanted. Now it was for him. Not the jewel itself, but the act.
When she had left, he had vowed that if he could not give it to her, no woman should have it. For as much as he now hated her, the jewel was conceptually hers. He had already mentally committed it to her life.
He had come close to being more in love with the jewel than her. So he bought it and fled the store with nary a word.
He was running now. Clasping the unwrapped box in his left hand as he pumped harder with his right, trying to get to that sound as fast as he could. The sound of the rushing river was punishing at near distance. It was the river that moved at a pace so brisk that the bottom was completely overturned a new every day. His jewel would be washed to sea to be discovered in another lifetime.
For while it not deserve to be destroyed, it also was not to be owned by anyone else, any other “her.” At least not in this lifetime.
-RTB
