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“Please, don’t do it.”

He was barely listening to the man in the chair. His focus was on the numbers on the screen and he really wanted to get this all over and done with before the police arrived.

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“Please.”

“Quiet. I am not going anywhere.”

The screen flashed for a moment. The icons disappeared and returned. The window he had clicked on reappeared with the options to open or save the image he was sent. He moved the icon, clicked on the left button and waited.

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It was a large file, so he knew that it would cover most of the screen when it opened. There were other pictures that she promised to send him, but this was the first one she wanted him to see.

“You really think that this is going to help? You really think you are going to see something you wanna see?”

He did not speak. The man in chair began to cough and hold his chest.

“Be careful what you wish for.”

“I shot you once. Only to wound. Next time, I may not be so kind.”

Why did she wait so long? He was wondering about and asking himself that question again and again all day. They had not seen each other in over a year and she was just writing back to him now. Or at least, she was writing to the system. He knew that the message was probably not for him. No point in caring otherwise, he thought.

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That was in the summer. A party in someone’s backyard and he did not have an invitation. She wasn’t even surprised to see him walking past and ignoring the host’s wife. That woman truly hated him, but the one whose eyes he looked into was smiling, almost to the point of tears. They left before the host came out of the kitchen with his cellphone and a threat to call the police. He remembered hearing his wife tell him to keep his voice down.

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He kept watching small slips of paper fly inside the small box on the screen. This computer was old and he knew that this would be another long wait. He did not have the money for a new laptop. Not then, anyway.

“Anything good there, chief?”

He fired a slug in the space near the man’s groin. He had been smart enough to use a silencer and to do this in the middle of the day.

“I said, be quiet.”

He was still thinking about what she said. All about money and wealth.  She did not care about those things and he liked her for her attitude on money. She did not care that he was poor and working odd jobs to cover his bills from school and the credit card companies. He had a beautiful set of brown eyes that made her forget everything else (her words). Also, he made her laugh. That was true. She always seemed to be holding a hand up to her mouth to cover her smile

“Good shot.”

“I will make it better next time. Almost done.”

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It was a very short relationship. That time in the backyard ended only three months of coffee shop conversations, walks in the park and through crowds during the festival season.

It was taken in the summer, just like that backyard party that he heard about from a friend. The hosts had no idea who he was. And she did not hesitate to leave with him as they all stared. She said that she hated the music, anyway.

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It was not a very romantic spot. They were in a park near his apartment. Lights were on at the tennis courts and baseball diamond nearby.  But there was an area untouched by any of the lights that began to glow in the dark. They could not see anyone on the paths around the sports areas. Only the sound of tennis balls hitting the court and camouflaged fencing were heard.

The man on the chair coughed a little more, a bit stronger this time, but he did not speak. Maybe that was why certain memories were coming back to him so vividly.      

She was not patient. He was grabbed, thrown on the ground and instructed. When it was over, she held him in a sitting position and said that she would always care about him. Then she ran. He tried to follow her, but he had not pulled up his pants. He fell over a hedge and landed on gravel. He could see her running past a small playground. Her dress trailed on her body like a flag in the wind. It had a pattern of flowers on the hem of the skirt. That was the last time he saw her.

“Almost…Just a little more and then…”

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The computer halted again. He tried to double-click the now faint “open” button, but nothing happened. 

“Give it a moment. It’ll work…”

Was he helping him? Was he actually ready for this?

“Right.”

The screen flashed after a moment, with all of the icons disappearing again. And then the image slowly rose up on the screen.

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He did not know the man standing behind her. They were both grinning and his arms were around her waist. He had sunglasses on and he noticed a gold chain around his neck with a crucifix.

She was wearing a small floppy sun hat, a loose outfit of dark blue and a necklace just like the one he was wearing. He did not think too much about it. But there was more to the image when he scrolled down the screen.

She was cradling a baby wrapped in white. It’s face was held up for the camera. The stare of the child was quite intense and he had to wipe away his tears as he looked closer at it. He could not tell whether it was a boy or a girl. But it had the most beautiful smile he had ever seen, and a set of brown eyes that looked through him.

And it was not his child.

“As I said…”

“Why don’t I just shoot you now?”

“Please.” He tried to stand, realized that the effort was too much, and fell back in the seat with a cough. “She tried to tell you and you were never going to listen to the truth.”

“Never going to listen?”

“That was what she said.”

“I would…” He actually felt the tears he promised to keep to himself. “No word from her and then all this nonsense with you and your company… Glad they hired me.”

“But she said that you would not be back. They wanted to protect her.”

“Her?”

“The baby. She only worried about the baby, not her own life. You already know that, don’t you?”

It was real temptation right now. He knew exactly how many bullets were left in the gun; the silencer was a perfect knock-off that he managed to reuse on many jobs; the noises around them was the usual traffic, not voices or footsteps. There was only this one man and his tie to a love that he did not have in his life anymore. And it was his fault.

He removed the silencer and holstered the gun.

 “I know everything now.”

 He sat and stared at the man in front of him and could hear the sirens in the distance. He looked carefully at the gun he now took back out. The barrel was a hot black staring back at him.

“I know everything.”