It was a late summer night in the middle of July. The air was hot and humid and filled with child-like joy. It was the grand re-opening of the local amusement park. The lights and shouts and excited screams could be seen and heard from miles away. No one seemed to question two adults who had gotten on a ride. Asher and Destiney had handed the bored employee their one-ride tickets and sat down in one of the compartments. This one was blue. What better place for a proposal?

The two sat a very small distance from each other on the ferris wheel. Their mouths were stretched into smiles and their hands were clasped together tightly. Both of them were filled with child-like excitement and wonder. 

The wheel went around and around and the chairs rocked with each minimal movement. Destiny shivered at the slight breeze and folded her arms around herself. The yellow lights of the ferris wheel and the string lights on the ground cast a warm illumination, covering everything with a whimsical feeling. 

Asher looked over at Destiney and a warm sensation filled his body. Her ripped jeans and white tank top were nothing special, but the sensation of flying, falling, and the shimmering lights made her look almost fantastical. He reached into the pocket of his denim jacket and felt the velvet box. He looked at Destiney one more time and pulled it out. 

“From the moment I met you, it felt like fate truly existed,” he said. 

Destiny glanced over at him, and then her eyes landed on the open box in his hand. The diamond ring sat prettily in the velvet cushioning. It glittered, tears formed in her eyes, and the ferris wheel kept going. 

The playful music that echoed through the amusement park quickly faded into the background and became silent. The children that surrounded them on the ferris wheel became inconsequential. 

“Destiney, will you—” 

She blinked. 

Destiny opened her eyes. There was no amusement park. There were no glittering lights. And Asher was gone. But there were tears. And a mark on her finger where a diamond ring once resided. 

She brushed the tears out of her eyes and took a deep breath. Papers were spread haphazardly across her table in her single-bedroom apartment. Divorce was messy. And the expectation to continue on with life and act as if nothing happened was messier still. 

Asher had said it was fate, but how could the universe send you the perfect person and then use another one to tear them away? Their marriage had been perfect until Asher left with another woman.

 Now, Destiny sat at the table, a thousand miles away from that amusement park, and wondered if fate didn’t exist at all.