Things To Do For Love

We had been driving for what seemed like hours, but I had lost count next to you in the passenger. I watched beads of sweat coat the edges of your nostrils, ducking behind the grooves in your cheeks. The coiled roads had curbed my appetite a new direction, and you slowed down with this in mind. There wasn't much left to eat, anyway: some strawberries, a watermelon rind, empty Lara Bar wrappers. With your eyes on the road, I tried to keep my thoughts on your laughter.

But my retching stomach disagreed, and I pleaded that you stop. The next pull-off was just around this bend, you said. I couldn't wait, I said.

I lunged to the backseat, reaching for the cooler, our only life line. Dunking my head into the hot plastic, fruit flies to puckered lips and closed eyes.

Suddenly, a burn pummeled through the pit of my gut. Chunks of bile leaped from my throat and into the vessel. I heard the scratch of gravel beneath our tires, and began to cry.

You pressed your palm between my shoulders, a reminder you were still there, and I let out a deep sigh. Wiping my mouth with the sleeve of my sweater, I turned to your furled eyebrows that read concerned. Do you want to do this out there?, you said, with a smile. Not really anywhere, I said, and laughed.