She was terribly sorry about burning a large hole in his shirt.
The shirt in question was, without doubt, his favourite and the most precious item of clothing that he had ever owned. There had always been this element of clumsiness about her, as far as ironing, cooking, cleaning and so on were concerned. When these little accidents occurred, she would always follow up with the most profuse and heart-rending apologies. As a general rule, you could say that he had learnt to live with it. On this occasion however, despite telling her she was forgiven, something inside of him snapped. Knowing this, he decided to let a bit of time pass before dwelling on it too heavily. Three days later, she was still apologising, saying that she was sure that he hadn’t really forgiven her.
He saw that the time was right to convince her by providing her with a treat. He said he would give her a private showing of the latest rooftop landscaping project he had carried out for the owners of the new twenty-story tower in the city. She was certainly impressed with the idea. It would be the first time he’d given her a private tour of any of his work.
On the day, using the keys provided, they walked up a very grand set of marble steps and walked in through the main entrance. In the foyer, a huge space that she was very impressed with, he then gained access to the elevator and they rode up to the roof.
After several minutes of looking around at what he had created, she said how surprised she was and how lovely the whole landscape was. She said how it made her so proud of him and the work he does.
A few minutes later, he called to her from the front side of the building. “If you come over to this side and look down you get a good view of the fronts steps.”
She walked across and stood next to him.
He said, “You need to lean forward a bit, but be careful, none of the safety rails have been installed yet.”
He watched as she peered down.
It would only take the gentlest of nudges.
However… he just couldn’t do it.