Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

“You have one minute to explain this.”

“As in sixty seconds?”

“Did I stutter?”

“ Not much time. Not much time at all.”

“Fifty eight seconds...”

“I didn’t know the minute had started. You didn’t warn me.”

“Oh yes I did!”

“Not really.”

“I’ve been warning you for years.”

“ You said, ‘You have one minute to explain this’ and then you just let it hang there! How fair is that?”

“Forty three seconds.”

“To explain a transgression? Nearly impossible.”

“Thirty three second.”

“You’re heartless.”

“I’m heartless? Twenty five seconds.”

“Look up from your damn watch!”

“No can do. Fifteen seconds.”

“Miss Perfect! All judgmental!”

“You’re running out of time.”

“What if I say I’m sorry? Would that be sufficient?”

“What do you think?”

“It would be fair, considering how long we’ve—“

“Five seconds.”

“It would be the decent thing to do.”

“Decent thing to do?”

“Yes.”

“Really? Under the circumstances?”

“I am sorry.”

“That you got caught.”

“I guess.”

“Time’s up!”

“That’s not fair.”

“Tick—“

“I can’t explain. All I can say is that I’m sorry and—”

“—tock.”

“—it won’t happen again.”

“No it won’t!” she says, then turns and hurries away.

“Where are you going?” he asks as he watches her disappear from his life.

Duh.