Secrets

I used to tell him stories. Lying in bed, the touch of his skin made hotter by my beer buzz, I told him about the first time my mother hit me, the tampon I threw behind the dumpster the night I lost my virginity, and the gun I found under the sofa cushion hours before Doug committed suicide.

Years later, I can recall every story I told him, every secret he knows about me, but cannot, no matter how hard I try, remember him ever having said he loved me.

He must have at some point, or wouldn't I have quieted my tongue?