<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My stomach growls as the baseball game ends on TV. Damned Yankees lost again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAida, can you bring me some milk and cookies, please?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cComing right up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few moments later, she comes into the living room with a plate of oatmeal-raisin cookies and a glass of milk. My favorite. She smiles, and I smile back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I pat the sofa cushion beside me. \u201cCome sit down. I have a question to ask you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She sits, and I look into her azure eyes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAida, we\u2019ve been together for a long time, and you know me well. Tell me all the ways you love me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She rolls her eyes upward in thought, and I can almost hear circuits hum in her brain. Her face grows slightly red. Is she blushing?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n After a moment, she looks back into my eyes and resumes her smile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHere are all the ways I love you, Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way you take care of me every day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way you look when you wake up in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way you smell after you take a shower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way you sound when you are singing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way you wrinkle your nose when you\u2019re thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m really liking this.<\/em> \u201cGo on,\u201d I say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way your pupils dilate when you look into my eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way your heart speeds up when I touch you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way your electrical impulses change when I am near you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s weird. Where\u2019s she going with this?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way your voice rises by 3.7 hertz when you say my name.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way your body temperature rises by 1.8 degrees when I sit close to you.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOkay\u2026\u201d I say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way you whisper my name in your sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way you smile exactly eleven seconds before you wake when you dream of me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love the way your first thought every morning is of me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhoa! That\u2019s quite enough,\u201d I say. \u201cAnd how do you know these things about me?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n She hesitates, and her eyes flash midnight blue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s okay, you aren\u2019t in trouble,\u201d I say. \u201cTell me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause I love you, Dan.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n My heart beats fast, and my face feels flushed. What is she saying?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I rise from the sofa. \u201cTell me, Aida, before I plug you in for the night. Do you even know what love is?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My stomach growls as the baseball game ends on TV. Damned Yankees lost again. \u201cAida, can you bring me some milk and cookies, please?\u201d \u201cComing right up,\u201d she says. A few moments later, she comes into the living room with a plate of oatmeal-raisin cookies and a glass of milk. My favorite. She smiles, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,23],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-3645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychological","category-science-fiction","tag-flash-fiction"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":7}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Tell-Me-All-the-Ways.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3645"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4028,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3645\/revisions\/4028"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twistytales.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}