Tiny Love Story - Stephanie Parent

After all the kind and cruel words, after the realization that I could never live by his rules, after the anger and the wrenching relief of being free, I remember this:

When he moved into his house, he bought two nightstands, one for each side of a bed

made for two. We christened that bed, but I wouldn’t spend the night.

The next time I came over, one of the nightstands was gone.

“I only needed one,” he said. I couldn’t tell if the twist in his voice was real, or just an

echo of the twist inside my gut.

Sometimes I see furniture abandoned on the street: scratched end tables, chairs with

broken legs. More rarely, something shiny, the smell of new leather, hardly used. My mind flashes to him.

His absence is a missing piece of furniture, in a room inside of me.

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Stephanie Parent is a graduate of the Master of Professional Writing program at the University of Southern California. Born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, she now considers Los Angeles her true home.