Pris Campbell
Double Dipping
He claims he’s planning divorce. I’m attracted but wait to see if it happens before responding to his romantic overtures. Christmas browsing together, we walk down snow-packed Harvard Square. In an antique shop I show him a ring I’ve been admiring for weeks. A gift I’m contemplating for myself, I tell him. It costs almost two weeks’ worth of groceries and money is tight. If he says “Don’t pass it up” I plan to buy it. He suggests I try it on. It gleams on my finger. I decide this is the ring for me no matter what. He pulls out his wallet and says “I’ll take it.” I’m thrilled. I never expected him to buy it for me. He pockets the receipt, slips the ring off my finger and sets it in the box the sales gal gives him.
“I was wondering what to get my wife for Christmas,” he says as he leads me out.
car wreck headed the wrong way down a one-way street
About the Author
Pris Campbell’s work has appeared in numerous print and online journals. She has also placed or had honorable mention in several competitions, including first place in the Marlene Mountain and the Sanford Goldstein 2021 contests, and has published nine books/chapbooks. A former clinical psychologist until sidelined by ME/CFS in 1990, she makes her home with her husband in Southeast Florida.