One Small Mistake

by Dandy Smith

That’s the thing about words – once they’re out there, they’re no longer just yours. They hang in the quiet and are plucked like cherries from a tree then, bitter or sweet, they’re devoured.

Why is it that men always feel the need to announce they’ve nipped the hoover round or done a load of laundry like they’ve just cured cancer? Then they beam at you as though they’re waiting for you to offer them a gold star or a blow job despite the fact that you do these chores every day without so much as a ‘thanks for that’ from the supposed love of your life.

‘Love is always a risk; it’s giving another person the power to destroy you and hoping they choose not to, but when it goes right …’ I don’t even think she’s aware that as she says this, her gaze drifts towards Christopher. ‘When it goes right, it’s like falling through stars.’

What I need now and what I’ll need always, is a love that washes over me like river water. That soothes. A love I can bathe in.