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by Sharon Wahl
He promised me everything. I hesitated before replying, and while I thought about what I wanted, really wanted, I realized he’d said everything, while most men in his position (kneeling on the floor, a gold ring held before him, his eyes lowered when they should have been seeking my eyes) would have said anything, like a genie granting me one wish. Everything: the tacos on my plate, the International Space Station, the city of Barcelona, all mine, and I was starting to enjoy this sense of possessive power when I looked at the man kneeling before me and thought, he is part of everything, he would be mine, too; and what is mine, is my responsibility. I was so dizzy that I walked away without responding, onto the sidewalk, where I passed a man sleeping curled up next to the wall with a puppy behind him, a puppy I almost stepped on, dark fur with tan eyebrows, a puppy too little to be living on the street, a hawk could snatch him. The puppy was awake, watching everyone, wondering what his position in the world should be: defender of this sleeping body, or seducer of the bodies walking past that leaned down and petted him and might possibly feed him. The puppy looked up at me, his eyes into my eyes, he whimpered and wriggled and wagged, and I felt that this puppy had communicated his interest in me more effectively than my boyfriend of seven months ever would, so I stopped, and considered, and said Yes, and I bent down and petted him, stroking his head with two fingers, his head was so little, and he licked my hand, his tiny teeth nibbling between my fingers for a stray shred of carne asada, and I picked him up and took him home.
Sharon Wahl’s collection Everything Flirts: Philosophical Romances (Iowa, 2024) was longlisted for the 2025 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction. Her writing has appeared in publications including Harper’s, the Chicago Tribune, The Iowa Review, and Wigleaf.
