Forget Me Not

by Julie Soto

I watch her chew, her tongue swiping out to catch the sugar. I think of Madison Bailey in middle school, telling any idiot who would listen that you should always eat in front of a boy. It will make him think about your mouth. Fucking Madison. I didn’t believe her back then.

Her eyes light up when she sees me, and maybe that’s worth it.

My breath is heaving in my chest. I’m so close to her, I could kiss her if I only stepped forward—

The press of her lips on mine sets everything in my chest on fire, and my fingers curl into her hair like a lifeline.

But I’m gonna come if I look at her. If I have my hands on her body for one more second, I’ll be done for.

I’m gonna fuck her. I’m gonna fuck her one day, and I’ll drive her just as crazy.

“I need to know how wet you are,” I whisper against her lips. “I need to know…” My fingers dance over the lace.

She said, ‘Love is like the wind. It will come and go. Weddings are just a party.’”

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

There’s no room inside of her, but I fuck her like I belong there.

“That’s not how it works,” he says. “There is no falling out of love for people like you and me.”

“Sometimes you just count down the days, the hours, until you can be useful again,” he says. “And if it ever ends, Jackie?” He lowers his voice. “You’re still counting away. The months since. The exact days since. Like a tally of moments you’ve spent not being important to them. But don’t ever think you’ll wake up and not be in love with her.”

“Someone I met five years, four months, three weeks, and five days ago.”

“It’s…It was never about extinction. The tattoos…” He blows out his air. “They’re ones that I—that I can’t have. Ones that can’t be used in arrangements, can’t be kept in the shop.” He looks up to me. “Ones that are likely to disappear before I can love them.”