Giving Blood
by Kirie Pedersen
Foliate Oak Literary Magazine
Jana waited for her boyfriend, Marco, to arrive for his first visit to her new home, a one-room shack on Snee Oosh Road. “In the period before a breakup, the partners demonstrate an attitude of politeness, passivity and detachment,” Jana read. “One or both is resistant to argument or discussion.”
Jana was increasingly hopeless about salvaging their shipwrecked union.
“You don’t blink when I tell you I might sleep with someone,” she told him on the phone. “Your attitude seems to be Oh that will be good for you, dear. What can I do to help?”
“All I care is that we remain friends,” Marco said. “I don’t own you. I want what’s best for you.”
“What’s best for me is for you to give a damn.”
“Let’s talk when I get there,” Marco said.
Read the rest of the story in Foliate Oak.
