The Endurance of Lovely Things

Aug 30, 2011 20:37

Title: The Endurance of Lovely Things
Author: Keppiehed
Rating: G
Warning: extreme melodrama
Word Count: 284
Prompt: “coffee”
A/N: Written for Quills.



He isn't here.

There are two mugs set out by rote; her hand moves through the motion worn familiar by time before the fact of his absence can stop it from unfolding. She frowns at the counter, the twin cups an ambiguous assault.

She pours the coffee-Arabica now, instead of the French he always insisted upon-and forgoes the creamer she always preferred. She is different now. She lets the coffee scald her tongue and does not-will not-wince at the bitterness as it slides over her tongue.

As she sips, she lets her thumb worry the old chip in the handle. A memory rises of how she dropped the mug while unwrapping the set from the box.

“Oh, it's broken!” She frowned, disappointed. “I've ruined it. And all the way from Italy, too.”

He took it from her hands and held it up to the light. “It's fine, love. You've christened it. This one will be mine and I shall always think of you when I drink from it.”

“You'll always think of me when you see a broken mug?”

“No, silly. It isn't broken. You demonstrated that beauty is not as fragile as it appears, that even lovely things have the ability to endure some bumps. This mug has some staying power, you wait and see if it doesn't. We'll be drinking from this set on our fiftieth wedding anniversary.” He laughed, but his eyes were serious.

She took the cup from his hand and turned it over in her own. He was right, it was barely a scratch …

She swallows her tears with the coffee as she thinks of how not everything is made to last forever.

flash fiction, quills, prompt: coffee

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