When Gracie Met The Grump

by Mariana Zapata

“You done fingering my throat?”

“But… you don’t even like me.” There, I’d said it. It wasn’t like that was anything new. There was literally no hesitation in his response. The son of a bitch even shrugged a little bit. “You’re all right.”

“It isn’t, but I know you. And you’re not supposed to be anyone else’s Gracie, you’re my friend. My Gracie. I’m too heavy to be a good swimmer, but I’ll never let you drown. I’ll never leave you. I’ll never keep secrets from you again.” “Alex….” I started. “Hold on, let me finish. Then my grandmother called me, right when I picked up the phone to call you, and told me to give you a little more time. That I had to let you see that you could be happy here by yourself. That you could have friends and build a life,” he told me seriously. “If I’ve learned anything these last few months, it’s that I should listen to her if I don’t want her to break my back again. So I left you alone. I made it two weeks before I started craving Cheetos, and I only wanted to eat them with you around. You’ve ruined tuna and pears. Snow and laughing. Being by myself. Nothing is the same without you now.” He dropped his voice. “You little butthole.”

“What my grandmother showed me was you crawling on the floor with a baby on your back. My baby. Our baby. It was so real, he smelled just like you.”

“There is no place I wouldn’t look for you. Seven miles deep in the ocean. On a planet in a distant galaxy. I would go anywhere for you if someone took you, Gracie,”