Nina never thought she’d be throwing Nick overboard. After all, he had always been a great sailor, always sure-footed on deck, as his tanned hands casually turned the wheel, and his dark eyes glinted into the sun. It was the life he’d been born to lead, and he’d always wanted her to sail with him. Nina had always needed to keep her feet on the ground, though, and so he’d gone to sea with another woman, never to return to her. Nina had stayed behind and kept the home fires burning, until they had turned to embers. Their children had grown up without him; now she and they were sailing today.

So here she was, unexpectedly, leaning over the side of the Love’s Sweet Dream, holding the clear Ziploc bag with Nick’s ashes. She squinted a little, trying to see where he might hit the water, then let it drop. She tossed a red rose after him, and it mocked her as the boat sailed on.

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Gabi Coatsworth is an award-winning British-born writer and blogger who has spent half her life living in the United States. Her essays and short fiction have been published in Tangerine Tango: Women Writers Share Slices of Life, an anthology of essays by women writers, E-chook’s literary memoir app, and literary journals, both in print and online. She also writes a blog – The WriteConnexion – a writer’s life in Fairfield County, CT. She has two dreadful novels languishing in a drawer somewhere.

Photo credit: Terri Malone