Forget Me Not

by Julie Soto

That’s when I see it. Ink. My heart stops. I can’t tell if it’s coming from his chest or his shoulder, but there’s a tattoo creeping out of his collar. A new one. It’s barely a glimpse before I have to look away. My mind is running a mile a minute as Jackie says something to him. It hurts to know that there’s a tattoo I can’t look at or touch. That I can never ask which extinct flower lives on his skin.

You may think everything ends one day, but you haven’t had ‘everything’ with me.”

But it’s the surprise from someone who knows you on a level no one else will—someone who’s opened up your chest and fit themselves inside.