The last light of the setting sun

Delicate sun light danced in an array of colours on his cheekbones. Orange like the autumn leaves, golden like melting butter - but even the warm colours couldn't hide the cold shine of his black sunglasses, when he stood there on the bridge waiting for the girl. So passed all the evenings by, the man stood there everyday watching the glowing sun sink into the water of the freezing river.

Sometimes the girl came, but often the sun was the only one wishing the man good night. But he stood there still, every evening, with the same sunglasses on covering his eyes.. But this time it was different. The glasses weren't a mirror of the orange sun, because this time they were gone. The man wasn't looking at the sunset, instead, the back of his leather jacket was bathing in the last lights, but he wouldn't turn around. He had something in his hand. It was a small box. Nothing special, just a simple small blue box.

It was already almost dark and the street lights we're slowly turning on, lighting the road one after another with their cold white shine. The last light turned on and under it stood the girl. She had cried, you could see that from the red marks which the tears had drawn on her face. She started walking towards the bridge, looking scared but somehow brave at the same time. Like she had prepared for this, like she knew what was about to come.

The man didn't look at the girl, although she already stood right next to him. He said nothing, not even a word. He just stood there next to the girl looking somewhere far away into the darkness that had the other side of the city in its arms. And then, finally, after several minutes, he said:
"I have been waiting for you. Every evening, waiting for you to come. Every time I have hoped, and every time I have had to throw my hope down into the river. Waiting was my only choice, you know that. But I have been waiting too long. Too long, but also long enough to realize, that you aren't worth waiting. You aren't worth it." And then he gave the girl the small box. She opened it - it was a ring box. The girl started crying. The box was empty.

The man put his hand in his pocket and there it was - the ring. It was a very beautiful ring, silver with two huge diamonds next to each other. Just like the man and the girl. But then he turned around and walked to the other side of the bridge. The diamonds catched the very last sunlight, sparkling in the deep red glow that made them look like bleeding. He closed his hand and dropped the ring down into the freezing river. The girl screamed - and then there was a silence. The man turned towards the girl and looked at her. And then suddenly, it was all clear. The man didn't see her. He couldn't see her. He was blind. The white eyes couldn't see the sunset, neither the girl. The only thing they saw was the hope, that was now in the icy water of the river.

"Waiting was my only choice." he whispered. And then he turned around and walked away. This way he knew, it was easy for him to go home. But the other way he didn't know. The way of the girl wasn't familiar to him. The way to her home. The way she had decided to live her life.