Micro fiction, Alaina Hammond
Love In The Lounge
“Please don’t judge me.”
“But I love judging! Incidentally, why am I not judging you? Or judging you, rather?”
“I’m chewing gum while drinking coffee. In my defense, the gum is cinnamon.”
“Ah. I missed that. Thanks for telling me. Now I can silently judge you, loudly.”
“Oh no!”
They laughed.
“I’m Molly. I teach physics.”
“Brendan. History. Hi!”
“I need to mark up this last exam, and gum helps me concentrate.”
“I like vanilla toothpaste, so whatever. No actual judgment here.”
For a semester, their flirtation was confined to the teacher’s lounge. Their wedding invitations referenced cinnamon and vanilla.
Alaina Hammond is a poet, playwright, fiction writer, and visual artist. Her poems, plays, short stories, philosophical essays, creative nonfiction, paintings, drawings and photographs have been published both online and in print. @alainaheidelberger on Instagram.
