The following bit of flash fiction was written in response to a Valentine’s Day Prompt. Enjoy. The Prompt is now closed. Long Ridge Writers Group has a newsletter you can join if you like short fiction prompts.
He Completes Me
“You just don’t get it,” Jade slumped on the stool and cradled her head in the crook of her arm. “He completes me.”
Tracy chopped at the carrots and absently scooped them up and into a bowl, like a pharmacist funneling pills into a prescription bottle.
Tracy prayed that her daughter would never have to experience a love so deep or a life so twisted by fate that this new lover would complete her.
Jade was a love child, a surprise, a happy mishap. Jade came into the world as a glue, to bind two insincere people together.
Over the years, Tracy and Steve had struggled, separated, reunited, settled in and at last became comfortable. Without a child to share they would have parted lives before they even started.
Two years ago, Tracy had to leave her job at the pharmacy to work the other side of the prescription bottle. When dialysis became too much for her body, it was Steve who stepped up.
The doctors said they were a “match made in heaven.” Friends and family romanticized the situation. In sickness Tracy and Steve had found a bond tighter than their love child.
“Yes, he completes me,” Tracy whispered as she set the pot to boil. Steve died of an embolism, a clot in his heart, on Valentine’s Day and no one seemed to understand the sincerelessness that Tracy felt. She knew the love her daughter spoke of for just a few weeks before death parted them.
“You know, Jade,” she began as she set the cutting board in the sink. “I get it more than you’ll ever know.” A tiny wave of envy swept through Tracy’s recovering body. She reached for her prescription bottle and clutched it tight to her chest. “More than you know.”