Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

Never Married

"Marital status, single," I say, shaking my head and smiling coyly at my lover in the other armchair. I'm pre-registering for a doctor's appointment on my phone. Without preamble I begin fake-crying until he replies, grin infuriatingly irresistible: "You'll be married before you die." "To who?" I feign innocence; kick his leg lightly. At 72 he still blushes. I love the pillowy softness of his Albert Einstein hair. I know he'll say, "To me." He does. I rise from my other armchair, plop my 67-year-old butt on his bluejeaned lap, pull his earlobe, say, "Hurry up with that divorce then.”

Fall Contest 2024 “Flirt” Finalist! Annie Kassof is a freelance writer and artist living in Northern California. About “Never Married,” our Contest Readers said ““very funny, adorable descriptions” and “sexy and cute.”

One of the Guys

Maybe.