The Deal

‘You look like you’ve seen a ghost!’ She exclaimed.

‘I…I wasn’t expecting you’. He stuttered in reply.

‘Me as in us? Or me as in me?’

He puzzled over this. ‘Both. I suppose. You’d better come in.’

‘Were you expecting someone else?’ She asked, putting the parcel down and shuffling out of her coat.

Looking around, it surprised her how neat everything was. She couldn’t help noticing a thick envelope sitting in the middle of the desk. Then she noticed how neatly dressed he was too.

‘I was expecting my wife’, he replied.

‘But isn’t she..?’

‘Dead, yes.’, he answered matter-of-factly. ‘But she told me that she’d be coming to collect me today’.

‘Oh. I didn’t know. Congratulations, I suppose.’

He didn’t reply, just looked sadly at the parcel that she had brought.

‘Do you ever regret..?’

‘The deal?’ He finished for her, looking into her eyes and nodding. ‘Sometimes.’