Pile of Shorts - 750 Word Project

I would like to express my thanks to my editor RF Fast who helped me produce this story. It was written for the 2026, 750 Word Challenge, details of which can be found in LITEROTICA NEWS on the landing page.

Below the **** line is exactly 750 words.

*****

Thomas O'Malley checked his tie in the mirror and picked up his keys before setting off for the bus stop at the top of the road. In his hand he had the small bunch of flowers he had picked that morning from the garden, the stems carefully wrapped in wet tissue inside a small plastic bag to keep them fresh.

Sitting on the bus he smiled to himself as he looked at the flowers, happy in the knowledge that his Gracie loved the daffodils that had just started to bloom. It was when they were bloom all those years ago, they had first met.

Grace was just 21 and working in a mobile refreshment truck looking after the workmen who were renovating a football stadium ready for the 1966 World cup. He had picked a few daffodils from the roadside and presented them to her with a grin and a request to take her for a drink. They started dating regularly and would spend Saturday nights kissing and cuddling in the back of cinemas.

Tommy smiled inside as he remembered after a year of heavy petting Gracie had dragged him behind a garage and seduced him, well that was always the way he told the story. The reality was the pair had been so overcome with lust Grace had stepped out of her panties and with her skirt around her waist Tommy took her virginity.

Once started Grace wanted more and as the summer nights became warmer, they would make love in fields and behind bushes as often as they could. Of course, the inevitable happened but when Grace told Tommey she had missed her monthly he was overjoyed and they were married a few weeks later.

Young Paula was born six months after they got married in 1969, a premature baby they kept telling everyone and a few years later little Joe appeared on the scene.

They never really took precautions relying on Tommy pulling out and spilling his seed on Grace's belly, although not always which caused minor concern for a few weeks. Grace would often finish her husband off with her mouth, telling him she loved his salty gifts.

As their children grew up, they never argued, in fact rarely a cross word passed between them. Tommy ran his own handyman business doing jobs for people that big builders didn't want to do.

Paula emigrated to Canada after getting married and regularly sent pictures of her husband and their three children. They had visited a few times, but Tommy and Grace had never taken the trip to see them. Sadly, Joe was killed in the Iraq war at 19 devasting them both.

Tommy smiled to himself as he entered the hospice and greeted the receptionist and nurses as he did every day. This had been Grace's home for the last few years when all had agreed it was for the best despite Tommy's protests. Entering the private room, he saw his wife sitting by the window staring out of the window at the daffodils just coming into bloom.

"Who are you?" Grace O'Malley said as she saw the man enter her room.

Tommy picked up the picture from beside her bed, "This is us Gracie on our Golden Wedding anniversary." He didn't add that the picture was taken just 7 short years ago when everything was fine and Gracie's mind was bright as a button.

Gracie looked at the picture and slowly smiled

"My Tommy."

They sat for the next two hours holding hands as Tommy gently reminded her of their children and grandchildren. The only time he would let go of her hand was to turn the page in the memory picture book he had created a few years before when the fog had started descending in Gracie's brain. She said nothing but he could see in her eyes the faint glimmer of recognition as she touched the pictures.

Stopping in the doorway Tommy turned back to his wife and said softly, "See you tomorrow love," but Gracie was staring out of the window, her mind elsewhere.

As he walked to the bus two nurses watched him from the window.

"He comes here every day, yet she never remembers him," Nurse Susie Potter said sadly.

"As he once said to me," Nurse Ellie Butler replied as she reached out for her girlfriend's hand, "She may not remember him, but he will never forget her."

"I hope when I get old someone will love me that much."