After you say, “I do” by Emma Mather
She eats marmite straight from the jar.
He craves peanut butter. She has a nut allergy.
He is asthmatic. She loves her feather duvet.
They both make sacrifices.
They take moonlit strolls along canal paths, hold hands in art galleries, share cocktail sausages at drinks parties, buy a joint membership to the National Trust.
His words are puncture wounds. Her limbs are cold ligatures. They both search for love in the creases of skin that no longer see the light.
“Your breath smells of brie,” she whispers.
“Your nipples taste of vinegar,” he says.
They fold down their final bed together. Where forever feels too short.
And in the spring, she grows tulips and he primroses.
Emma Mather writes short stories, flash fiction and is currently working on her first novel. She has previously been shortlisted as part of the short story competition at the Hastings Literary Festival. She is a First Class English Literature and Theatre Studies Degree graduate from Lancaster University, and was a qualified solicitor. She now lives in Farnham, UK with her husband, three young children and a demanding, neurotic labrador. She loves to swim in cold water and is at her happiest either in a wetsuit or with a pen and paper in hand, on the beach.
Image by ErikaWittlieb from Pixabay
To enter a FFF Competition…https://freeflashfiction.com/current-competition/
Follow FFF on Twitter – @fffict
Follow FFF on Instagram – @freeflashfiction23
Join the FFF mailing list – form is on the home page – https://freeflashfiction.com
Free Flash Fiction now offer a Critique Service – https://freeflashfiction.com/critique-service-2/
You donate – we purchase – an author gets a prize, a book gets a little publicity, and the work of a flash fiction author gets read! Go to the Kofi page for more info…https://ko-fi.com/freeflashfiction
*
Tags: