Intuition

On the second Saturday of the month, Harry and Divah sat beneath a tree. It was a sacred tree, to them at least, for they met there like this once a month. Divah did not know that today would be very different from the previous Saturdays during which they met; but the hair on Harry’s neck prickled up as a silence fell between them. He had something to tell her, but he just couldn’t spit it out.

Divah picked up the conversation with news that she had put in her two weeks at her job, which made Harry even more nervous about the news he had for her. He had known that she wanted to quit, but he had hoped that she wouldn’t actually do it.

“Harry, what do you think?” she asked him sweetly. Harry gathered himself after being lost in a state of worry.

“I think if you’re unhappy there you should quit. But do you have anything else lined up?”

“Not yet,” Divah said. “But I have enough savings to get me by for a while. Do you think I did the right thing?”

The truth was, Harry did not feel she had done the right thing, in fact, he felt it was quite irresponsible of her and she ought to save her money instead.

“Well, it’s done now, isn’t it?” he said to her.

“True…” Divah’s voice tapered off as she picked at some grass from the ground. She felt that Harry wouldn’t have advised her to make this decision, and perhaps she had done the wrong thing.

“Well I’m sure you’re excited to be getting out of there,” he said to her, in an attempt to shift her mood.

But Divah didn’t say anything, as she was sad that Harry hadn’t been more excited to hear that she had more free time now. Unfortunately, he wasn’t responding as hoped.

The two sat in a somewhat awkward silence under the tree. It was clear they had nothing much to talk about, even though they’d been seeing each other for over 6 months. Divah rolled her eyes and gave off a clearly irritative vibe. Quickly, things began getting tense between them.

The obvious strain under the tree was causing Harry to regret not revealing his news sooner. In fact, he had known this piece of information during their last meeting, but he wasn’t feeling confident about what he had to tell her just yet. Now, he wished he had gone for the gold before she’d gone and quit her job. Though she wasn’t saying it, Harry knew she had made that silly decision with him on the back of her mind.

“So, what’s been new with you?” she asked him.

Once again Harry was given the chance to interject. “Eh, nothing really,” he lied. “Just work, parents, same ol’ same ol’,”

Harry looked so charming to Divah even when he was being boring. “Oh. And how are they?” she asked, trying to pump some juice into their conversation.

“They’re doing good. Just been putting an irrigation system into their yard,”

“Oh,” Divah acted as if this were an interesting topic. “And have they done something like that before?”

“No. My dad just uses Youtube to learn things,”

“That’s pretty savvy of him,”

“I know! I’m surprised he’s able to do that,”

“Right. I know most people of that generation can be quite afraid of using the internet. Especially for such serious projects like that,”

Harry just laughed. Then he said, “What is your plan then? Like, what are you going to do in between jobs?”

“I don’t know. I guess I was sort of hoping we’d be able to spend more time together,”

Here it was. Harry couldn’t escape it now.

“Div,” he said, with that special drop in tone that no girlfriend wants to hear, “Listen. I like you a lot. And I know we’ve been seeing each other a while now,”

Divah’s face began losing color. The joy she had felt from watching his smile was wearing off like melting butter.

“But it’s not going to work out,” he told her.

The moment he had called her Div, she already knew. All the sadness and disappointment had expressed itself then, in those few moments leading up to that very last line. Now, now she was angry.

“Are you serious?” She slashed back at him. “And what made you suddenly change your mind?”

This, this is the part he did not want to tell her. It made no sense to him, and he knew it was a horrible excuse. Divah raised a condescending eyebrow at him, prodding him for an answer.

“You’re going to think it’s totally stupid,”

She pulled back, now slightly intrigued.

“Well?” She asked. For a moment, he seemed to be retreating into himself.

“Okay,” Harry took a deep breath. “It’s a funny story. Well, not funny I guess,” he glanced over to see if she’d loosened up, but Divah appeared to still be waiting aggressively, “You see everyday I drive to work. And every day on my way to work I just can’t seem to get a green light, at any of the traffic stops. Not one. It’s ridiculous, it really is… it’s the most frustrating part of my day.

“Well, a few weeks ago, as I was sitting at one of the red lights, and I saw a sign. And it seemed sort of random. I’d actually never noticed it before. It was a sign advertising a vacation resort in Miami,”

At this point, Divah felt she was somewhat catching on, but she was still waiting for the punch.

“You see I’ve always had this draw towards palm trees… anyways. It was weird. It was like an unfamiliar voice in my head spoke to me. It said: Harry, if you can make all the green lights on your way to work today, you will do it. You will come to Miami.

“Of course I didn’t believe it,” Harry told her. “Not only because of my terrible luck with traffic lights, but also because I was sure I was going crazy. I’d never heard a voice like that in my head before. But just then the light turned green. I didn’t really think it was special, because every light turns green eventually, but the weird thing was, the next light was already green,”

Divah’s attention was all on him. She had never heard him speak like this before. She gave him a look of disbelief and said, “Interesting,”

“Yeah! And guess what?”

“What?”

“The same thing happened with the next light,”

“No way?”

“And the next,”

Divah kept listening.

“And the next!”

Divah covered her mouth in disbelief; though it sounded like a tall tale Divah knew Harry was not the storyteller type. But her excitement vanished as she remembered what this meant regarding her destiny with Harry.

“So what does this have to do with me?” she asked him. Though she was pretty sure she knew the answer.

“Well… I think that little voice in my head was my intuition,” Harry told her in a very profound manner. “And I think I’m going to listen to it,”

For a while everything was quiet. Eventually Divah asked, “So you’re moving then?”

“Not moving no. But I’m going to Miami. I think it’s time for me to do some soul searching,”

Divah sighed. “I get it,” she told him. Though her hopes were indeed crushed, Divah did understand. Harry worked a lot which was the reason for their clashing of schedules. Divah had tried to fix the problem by changing her life, but it just wasn’t going to cut it. She nodded her head and let it sink in.

Harry did feel bad, he did, but he also knew there was more out there for him. “I’m sorry Divah,” he said to her. “If things are different when I get back, you know I’m willing to give this another shot,” But the both of them knew, this would be it.

Later that month on a Friday evening Harry was finishing up the last of what needed to be done before his trip to Miami. He was at his office, shuffling papers around and sending out last minute emails when he looked out his window. There she was: Divah in her Navy Blue Range Rover. He sure did adore her.

He began feeling sad as regret crept into his mind and soul, thinking perhaps he’d made a bad choice. As he stayed up late that night sipping whiskey and watching his favorite movies, all he could think about was her.

The next morning, he pulled himself out of bed whilst his alarm went wild. It was time to go to the airport. His things were packed and all he had to do was put on fresh clothes and a hat, and call for an Uber.

When he boarded the plane, everything seemed dull. He seemed to be feeling the consequences of his actions now of all times. The long ride across the country was taxing, but when he finally set foot in the dense Miami heat, life began flowing back into him.

Into another Uber he went, headed for the hotel. On the way, they were to pick up another passenger.

“Just have to grab one more here,” the Uber driver told Harry, as he pulled the car up to a curb. Harry of course peered out the tinted windows to get a peek at who he’d be sitting with. A beautiful blonde girl with a plaid skirt and white blouse was walking up to the car.

“Cherlyn?” The Uber driver asked, as the girl opened the door.

“That’s me!” Cherlyn flashed the driver a very sweet smile, then she whisked herself into the car with quite some confidence.

“Hello,” Harry said. He had great trouble holding his back his words.

“Hey,” She smiled at him but didn’t say much more. Instead, the voice came back into Harry’s head. This time it said: we are meant for each other.

Harry quickly turned to see if there was a passenger in the backseat, someone he hadn’t noticed upon arrival. The voice had seemed so loud, so real. But there was no one there. He looked back at Cherlyn who looked so happy gazing out her window. When she finally noticed he was staring at her she turned and looked at him with bright green shining eyes.

“Wow,” the Uber driver said, breaking the steady gaze of the passengers. “I have never once been down this street without hitting a red light! There’s sure something funny in the air today,” Cherlyn giggled at the comment.

Then Harry spoke to her. “You’re not going to believe this,” Harry said to Cherlyn, and he began to tell her the reason he'd come to Miami.