I Love You (I Love You Not)
@ocd
I Love You (I Love You Not)
Gary showed Amy his collection of love letters. He had an entire room stacked with them. There were probably more than ten thousand, all of them handwritten. Some of them were pinned to the walls, others piled on top of each other.
‘Wow. What are they worth?,’ Amy couldn’t resist asking.
‘I don’t know. I suppose it depends on who you’re asking,’ he told her.
‘Okay. What are they worth to you?,’ she tried again.
‘Not much.’
‘Then what made you collect them in the first place?’
‘I’m the one who wrote them. Well, part of me wrote them anyway,’ Gary said. She studied his face, finding less than a smile.
‘You wrote them? Who’s the lucky girl?,’ she asked.
‘I’m looking at her right now,’ he said. They both shared a quiet moment among all those X’s and O’s. It was a moment they would not only remember, but cherish for the rest of their lives.
‘No way,’ Amy finally said, not knowing exactly how to feel about all of this.
‘You think I’m crazy?,’ he asked.
‘No. No. It’s just that—’
‘I love you, Amy,’ Gary said. ‘But I can’t.’
‘Can’t what?’
‘I can’t love you like the part of me that wrote all these letters.’
‘Why not?’
‘That part of me died when you kissed me,’ he said, his voice trembling. ‘It died when you kissed the part of me that never wrote you anything.’
Jaundré M. van Breda © 2018
