Tiny Love Stories: ‘My Body Told a Different Story’

Modern Love in miniature, featuring reader-submitted stories of no more than 100 words.

The day my 80-year-old mother announced she was moving to my town for the rest of her life, I was so shaken, I couldn’t remember how to set the table. Three thousand miles separated us for a reason. She had betrayed and refused to support me at the worst moment of my life. Two decades later, she and her dementia arrived, challenging me to cross a chasm of ambivalence and distrust so I could become the daughter she needed. Her decline pushed every button I had, but before she died, my rusty, wounded heart cracked open. — Laura Davis

I was staring at a sculpture that looked like chaos dressed in hot pink when I felt the tickle of his beard against my cheek. The words “You’re a masterpiece” were a warm whisper against my ear. The docent told us not to touch the art, but his arms wrapped around my body tight, like canvas stretched across a frame. We stood there, suspended in time and space, as if his love for me were also worthy of display. — Najla Brown

I swallowed my feelings as my gloved fingers accidentally brushed against my lab partner’s. “Here’s the appendix,” he said. “Here’s the pancreas,” I replied. His warm, intelligent eyes peeked over his mask. I almost drowned in them. He had a long-term girlfriend, so I didn’t mention that I studied him more than my textbooks that first year of medical school, or that I sometimes caught him watching me too. He admitted feelings for me. I told him to go fix his relationship. He listened. They broke up anyway. Now, 20 years later, we don’t wear gloves when our fingers brush. — Anita Vijayakumar