Gwen wanted to reset the relationship.
“Is there a button we push?” I asked.
We were in Nick’s, in a back booth, pound-jars of PBR on the table between us. Gwen studied her beer as hard as I’d ever seen her study anything. “It’s not working,” she said.
“I think it is.”
“Just stop it, okay? Stop pretending.”
“Pretending?”
“That you love me. I’m not dumb.”
“I never—”
“Loved me?”
“Thought you were dumb.”
“Lair!”
I started to object, but saw there was no point.
Instead, I pressed my thumb on the table-top.
Gwen smiled.
“Push hard. Sometimes it sticks.”
I wrote this story for the 100 Word Challenge #348 at Velvet Verbosity.
I like the turn of humor at the end. It shows that there’s hope for the relationship. It makes me hope they get through this.
Originally, the story had a downbeat ending, but there wasn’t any movement. With this ending, I see a bit of change in the narrator; he realizes something about his attitude toward her, something he doesn’t like. So, yes, there is hope!