A Novel Love Story

by Ashley Poston

(She made a mark every time the word “cock” was used. Last year, we got up to sixty-nine times. It was nice.)

tiptoes,

Pru and book clubs and burnt hamburgers disguised in hot sauce and poorly attended author events and cheap chardonnay and loud music and summers driving down country roads with the windows rolled down and engagement parties and nights with wine and hot tubs and good books. It wasn’t the end that mattered, but every word leading up to it.

Love was a bunch of small things that added up to bigger things.

“the one with the tentacles and the happily ever after.”