“I love you.”

It had come out of no where. They were just sitting on the sofa watching day time TV when he casually confessed his love, solidified by shifting his hand slightly over hers. She carried on chewing plump cherries from a lustrous porcelain bowl and spitting the seeds out in her other hand as if she hadn’t noticed.

“I really do,” he repeated somewhat concerned.

She chewed louder on the cherry pit in her mouth, grating it against her teeth. Turning her head, she replied simply with

“I know.”

She crunched straight through the cherry pit with a menace he hadn’t seen before. She didn’t even flinch and returned her gaze back to the TV.

He laughed nervously, tainted by confusion, “That’s…that’s it?”

“Yup.”

She popped another cherry into her mouth. “Good to know I guess.”

Silently his hand slid back onto his lap. Confusion controlled him, testing lines in his head but he couldn’t work out how to reply. He took a deep breath but nothing came out. She carried on chewing and swinging her legs back and fourth, her eyes carefully following the far away figures on TV. He gazed at the scalloped rim of the cherry bowl but really he was looking far beyond it. Finally he spoke up.

“So you’re not going…”

She raised her hand to his face, her eyes still locked on the TV.

“It’s getting to the good bit,” she smiled.

He opened his mouth to protest but anything he said was drowned out by the increasing volume of the TV.

“You don’t love me?” he yelled above the news reader’s report.

She furrowed her brow half in annoyance, half in confusion. But before she replied, she cocked her head, seemingly pondering it.

“Not really,” she shrugged, tossing another cherry into her mouth. The bowl caught the light and the pearlescence struck his eyes.

He turned to look at the TV again, vaguely interested in the robbery reported. A hollow ache slowly burnt into his stomach, his mind littered with broken dreams of being with her.

“Look!” she yelled, squealing with excitement so much her empty cherry bowl rolled on the floor. “It’s me!”

Still looking down, he picked up the bowl and gazed into the swirling motifs entrancingly engraved into the pottery.

“This is going to do wonders for my reputation!” She grabbed his hand in excitement and he looked up immediately.

Before him, a porcelain pearlescent bowl with delicate engravings plastered across the TV screen.

‘Stolen’ it said. ‘Suspect a young women seen dressed in a cherry red dress.’

The bowl slowly rolled across the floor whilst she giggled as if someone had just confessed their love.