Nora Nadjarian

He keeps texting Baby, be mine and then just Baby, or Be mine, and I keep popping packets of love hearts in my mouth, fizzy orange, pale yellow, pretty pink, Be mine, baby and then forever, and then Oh baby and Please, baby. Love and kisses. And the texts keep coming Baby, baby, forgotten me? Every night a yellow face with a heart escaping from its mouth, and Baby I dream of you, good night kisses, baby. I wake up and there’s another face with hearts coming out of its eyes, Baby, I’m thinking of you. In class I smile into my maths book, and later Baby, I can’t think of anything else, equations with hearts in my book and I’m doodling heart plus heart and I’ll probably fail but who cares and Baby, I can’t think of anything else, just you, and later, at night, Baby, what are you wearing right now? Baby, I want you so much, more love hearts and kisses, pink icing on doughnuts, a kitten with a red bow, Baby, send me a photo and later, You’re so pretty, send me another and Oh, Baby, what you do to me – I think he really loves me – and Baby, take them off and I do and Baby, send me one more, one more, and the texts and photos back and forth and You so sexy, baby, this is true love, baby, I keep popping the love hearts and I write When will we meet? and there’s another kitten, one more doughnut, a fuchsia heart, a rose, one after the other, but no words, and I type in Baby? with a question mark and it’s hanging in the air, another doughnut, one more love heart, till the packet’s empty, baby. The packet, baby, it’s empty.

This piece was previously published by National Flash Fiction Day FlashFlood

Nora Nadjarian is an author from Cyprus. Her short fiction has been published in various journals including Milk Candy Review, Ghost Parachute, Fractured Lit, CRAFT, matchbook, Centaur, Pithead Chapel and was chosen for Wigleaf‘s Top 50 Very Short Fictions of 2022 (selected by Kathy Fish). She placed third in the Welkin Writing Prize in 2025. She is also a widely published poet and her latest poetry collection Iktsuarpok is available from Broken Sleep Books.
https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/nora-nadjarian-iktsuarpok
Socials: Bluesky, X, Instagram

Read more from Nora:

Okay Donkey – ‘Join the Dots‘
Craft – ‘My Sister’s Life as a Series of Rooms‘

Here on Trash Cat Lit – ‘The Others‘