Boastful Bliss

“You can’t tell me that, then expect to just walk away without some sort of recourse! If you didn’t want a response, why tell me?” she says as she throws her hands into the air and stares at him with a frustrated gaze.

His mouth trembles as a small sea of sweat cascades down from his top lip. “I-I-I,” he draws back a desperate breath as he clears his throat then spits a wad of mucus dressed in a river of saliva. He smiles broadly, freely displaying his mouthful of rotten teeth. “I wasn’t looking for a response, it’s just the ritual of it all. I can’t do one thing without doing the other, for it will not allow the process to go forward, and if I cannot go forward, then I am redundant in my position. Can you understand that? Can you see why it is important for the structure of it all that I follow the pathway set before me by those that came before you?”

She stares at him with a deep seeded intensity, exploring all the facets of his features, trying to compile one vivid image of his face. But, as her eyes moves from each deep crevice to the next, her mind forgets the last, until she comes to the edge of his face.