Short Story - Responsibility

Ciao, Tutti!

I have a new sudden fiction story for you all - only 245 words, a short read! Also I've added a link at the top of the page labeled "Short Stories" (next to "Recordings) where you can easily find the links to the other stories on this blog. Enjoy!

"I love you," she said after I took the chair across from her desk. I had never met her before, and besides the regulation-sized photo on my résumé lying in a manila folder in front of her she had never once laid eyes on me. But I could hear the sincerity in the moan in her voice, in the reddened eyes watered by coffee after tossing and turning through the night, in the almost perfect mastery in hastily tying her hair. I could see in those eyes all the candidates before me, dressed as I was in polished shoes and a striped tie, a copy of today's Wall Street Journal tucked under the arm. I could imagine how each reacted, their eyes locking on their knees, their nervous laughter, their stammering as they thought of the proper response, their hands clasped together until their knuckles whitened. Some must have asked her to repeat herself, unsure of their ears. Some must have wondered what place a declaration of love had in the application process. Some must have thought they were in the wrong room. Some must have replied, unsure and untruthfully, that they loved her, too, hoping that was the correct answer. All were sent immediately from the room, left to wonder. And now I sat, staring into her lonely eyes, and responded with complete honesty, repeating her phrase with the final word missing. She nodded, understanding in her downcast eyes, and I was dismissed.

-Sam goldsmith