A Love Trap

"Ellie! Stop... talking... like that!" he spluttered.

Francis might have been with a lot of women, but he took nobody seriously. Those women knew it and they didn't mind.

But Ellie was different. He never thought of treating her badly.

He could not fathom why she had to hurt herself like that.

He was really upset. Not because of what she thought about him, but because of how she saw herself.

The worst part of it was that she called him "Mr. Francis." The fact that she called him "Mr. Francis"

hurt him the most.

Ellie closed her eyes and pursed her lips. She didn't say anything.

Francis grabbed both her shoulders and forced her to look at him. "Ellie, please tell me you're joking." He looked at her, his eyes firm with pleading and frustration. "Please tell me you didn't mean any of what you just said."

Francis' eyes spoke sincerely to Ellie.

She couldn't take another look at him. She needed strength to say what she was about to say, "No, I meant everything I said."

Francis could see right through her lie. He shouted, "Look me in the eye and tell me again! You didn't mean any of that, right?"

Ellie looked into his eyes, her visage as fierce as the crunching in her chest. "I meant it. I meant every bit of it. You may leave Mr. Francis."

Ellie pointed to the door gesturing for Francis to leave.

"Fine!" Francis clenched his jaw and gnashed his teeth in anger.

He let go of her and turned around to leave.

The thud that came from the shutting door made Ellie flinch. As the door closed, the room fell into silence.

Ellie could only look at the direction where he had gone.

to

felt as if all the tough facade she had shown him earlier had started

all by herself now. Everyone had left for real. She was really

to L City was

them. But none of that ever happened. What was waiting for

when she arrived. She assumed that they went out for some groceries. She wanted to surprise them and

asked the neighbors but never really got an answer. All of them just looked at her with sad faces and tried to

started to panic after she didn't hear anything about her grandparents for the

tried to avoid talking about them at

her that her grandparents had passed

had hardly caught a cold in their lives, but this sickness caught on them all of a sudden. With their age, it

they seemed to know how little time they had before they passed. They told the neighbors not to tell Ellie. They said that they might fight it through and they didn't want to make her worry. They also told them

story, she

She didn't believe that any sickness could

she had known, she would not agree to let them leave.

mourned until she decided to

her sitting on the bed,

why it was so hard for her to accept that they had

He places a breakfast platter on the table in

him, surprised,

eyes were red and swollen, but she couldn't keep her tears from falling

told you last night?

at him with a blank

she

told

took over

know what to do.

huge traumatic mark on her. She had stayed away from men for many years.

She didn't hate the idea of

just realized it, but she was happy

she felt lost. She wasn't sure about what she was feeling, but she knew that she