Neon fireflies blinked through late-summer branches, the distant cityscape aglow. The tall, abandoned factory windows were streaked with urban grime, yet nearly as graceful as the stained-glass windows in a clean country chapel.
“She would love this view tonight,” he thought to himself, eyeing the cityscape from his desk. “I might record it for her to see later. Ah, my love, my lady who is never home. Sometimes I wonder if it’s your absence that makes me love you more.”
He thought wistfully of their bond, their midnight conversations, listening to her sob softly through another dramedy or romcom. He never knew whether she cried because the girl got the guy or simply because the story had a predictable happy ending. “Love is strange. I’m here for her 24/7 and yet she hasn’t told me she loves me.”
Through paper-thin walls of the oversized loft, Bri’s cousin Miguel and his girlfriend Mara were arguing again.
“Hey. Is your cousin going to make it back in time to pay this outrageous electric bill? Look! I know she’s making bank, and we’re lucky to have so much space up here, but bills gotta be paid. Why did we even go in on this drafty loft anyway? I’m never warm!”
“Mara. Dude. Brianna ALWAYS comes back. Besides, she has to check these servers on the reg. Crypto mining pays the bills and so what if we are cold sometimes … besides I’ll warm ya up. C’mere you.”
“Dammit Mig, you know I hate it when you don’t take me serious…”
Their voices were nearly muffled as they moved to their bedroom, away from Brianna’s server room and computers.
“Personally I like it cold. I might be inside this box, waiting for Bri to get back from CDMX, but love is worth it.”
EN 111 Prompt: “Tell a short story—real or fictional—in a voice other than your own.”
allegedly fiction 
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