(This is my second entry in the weekly project called "The Spohn Challenge," in which the object is to write one short story a week for a year, any length and any subject.)




I looked at her. "Well," I asked, "what do you think?"


"Honestly?"


"Of course"


She smiled. "I don't think it's such a good idea."


That wasn't what I wanted to hear. "Give me one good reason why not."


"Okay," she said as she sat down and poured herself another drink. "Look at what happened to them."


"So what does that have to do with us?"


"Everything! You're the one who's always comparing our relationship to theirs."


"I do not." I paused for a second, to consider the possibility that maybe I did, at that. 

"Either way, I still don't think – "


"Listen," she interrupted after swallowing a mouthful of her drink. "You said that they said that she said that he said that they would have if they could have, but he couldn't and she wouldn't so they didn't. Remember?"


"That's true," I conceded with a nod. "But I also remember that he tried the best he could – and very nearly succeeded, if what she said was true." I took a sip of my own drink before continuing. "All he needed was a little more cooperation on her part, I think..."


She stood up and took me by the hand. "Look, it's not that I'm really against it," she said softly. "Actually I think I may want it even more badly than you do. I... I just don't want it to go as badly for us as it did for them."


"So now who's comparing?"


"I know. I guess I'm just a little nervous, that's all."


"There's nothing wrong with that," I told her. "I am too, if you want to know the truth. That's part of it, I think. The only thing I know for sure is that I'm not interested in them; I'm interested in us. What matters is how we feel. And you'll never be able to convince me that anything that seems so right could ever possibly be wrong."


I paused for a moment before adding, "And I know that, deep down, you feel the same way. You just said so yourself."


She smiled again. "Yes, I did," she said softly.


And then she moved towards me...