The Autumn I Stopped Waiting for Him

Synopsis

Everyone in town knew about the promise Andrew Rivers and I had made. Every year on the fall equinox, he would meet me at Rivergate Pier. If he showed up, we'd finally set a date for our wedding. I waited six years. The first year, he said something urgent had come up at work. The second, he blamed a highway closure. The third, he got into a minor car accident. He was only scraped up, but I was so worried I couldn't sleep all night. He had an excuse in years four and five, too. By the sixth year, I'd learned to make excuses for him myself. "He doesn't want to stand me up. He's just busy." I'd said it so many times that even Mom was tired of hearing it. On the morning of the equinox, she stood in the kitchen doorway and watched me put on makeup. "Evelyn, are you still going today?" "Of course," I said. "What if he doesn't show up again?" Mom asked. My hand paused with the lipstick. "He will." Mom gave a cold laugh. "You say that every year." I didn't answer. Truthfully, I wasn't sure, either.