Stenchwing

“Gaudium?! Hey!”

Sulfurous fumes wafted from Stenchwing. He knew that voice. “Oh, Sapientia… Hi.”

“Gaudi, how are you?! It’s been what? Four millen—”

“Five actually. Yeah. It’s uh, Stenchwing now.”

“Oh, right, sorry.” Sapientia paused, uncomfortable. “Stenchwing.”

“Uh, I’m good though. Doing good. I mean I’m doing evil, but I’m good at it. So…” Stenchwing continued avoiding eye contact, a difficult task since Sapientia’s promotion to Cherub.

“So,” Sapientia said, desperate to break the silence, “I see you have a new human. How’s that?”

“You know, it, uh… it has ups and downs. More downs recently, so that’s good—er, bad. But for me that’s good.”

“I miss the one-on-one work sometimes. But I get facetime with the Big Guy now, so…”

“Sounds like choosing to focus on your career has worked out.”

Bitterness dripped from the remark. Cordiality proved difficult for the Fallen.

“Look, I…” Sapientia’s words faltered. “I’m sorry about how things went between us.”

“No worries. I get it. It’s for the worst. I mean, the best. You get what I…”

“It’s just…”

“No explanation needed. Matthew 22:30, right? We’re cool. I mean, not cool, but… no hard feelings. Beyond like, the eternal ones.” Stenchwing chuckled in an awkward attempt to relieve the building tension.

“Cool.”

“Yep.”

Stenchwing turned to follow his human back into the café to berate an employee.

This is a flash fiction piece that I entered in a contest. While I did not win, I was happy with the work and how it addressed the prompt (Angels and Demons, Love across time, Drama) and stayed within the limit of 180-220 words. This version has been ever so slightly extended and edited. The original post was 211 words, and can be read as a comment at https://microcosmsfic.com/2023/07/16/microcosms-200-the-karen-cox-prize-for-entertaining-short-fiction/