I looked up at her from my bed as she was sitting there beside me. The screen above my head reported to the world, via a series of numbers and a moving graph, that I was still alive. Though we both knew that I wouldn’t be so for long.
It was easy, lying there useless, to compress all of those times when we had laughed, made love, argued, cried, got drunk, lied to each other or fallen asleep in each other’s arms into a single moment. And wonder what it meant. Two ordinary people within two ordinary lives.
She had no expression on her face. Or not one that I could interpret. So I asked, “Do you still love me?”
She looked at me carefully for what seemed a long time and sighed. “Oh,” she said eventually, “I think it’s much worse than that. I’m devoted to you.”
Richmond Road 
Beautiful and very poignant microfic. x
LikeLike
Thanks for that Eleanor. I think whoever came up with the #1minutefiction idea has influenced me a little too much. I now have an attention span of no more than 57 seconds so everything has to be short and (hopefully) sweet. It reminds me of my youth ……
LikeLiked by 2 people
so sweet, and thanks for sharing your peanuts 🙂
LikeLike
I think, in retrospect, that what I was trying to get across is that devotion can become something of a chore. Love is a bit easier to deal with.
LikeLiked by 3 people
then devotion sounds like it comes from duty or pity rather than straight from the heart?
LikeLike
Well maybe not quite like that …. as though the love has become so much a part of you that you couldn’t stop even if you wanted to. Actually, I don’t really know what I am talking about.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I can see that sometimes the freely-given can fugue into the expected-yet-again…
LikeLike
I might be getting a little out of my depth here concerning matters of the heart but I think that when one is in love there is always an escape clause somewhere in the contract. That clause is (voluntarily) removed when you sign up for devotion.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I think that sounds excellent. It’s like pledging allegiance–the ‘voluntarily’ is crucial.
LikeLike
I understand it completely.
LikeLike