“smiling face with heart-eyes” by Johannah Simon
I think about us all the time. (face blowing a kiss)
At work. At home. In the car. In bed. At the library. At the grocery store. On the train.
In a crowd. When I’m alone. (growing heart)
Are you thinking about me? (smiling face with hearts)
Wondering about the person I might be IRL? (smiling face with open hands)
When you read my texts, can you decipher the subtext poured into every emoji? (face with monocle)
My secret messages encoded into each heart and flame, carefully curated and pasted with care under your comments, a hidden love language encrypted in keyboard hieroglyphics. (love letter)
I know. (squinting face with tongue)
I know so deep and true – that this is my fiction, flimsy and fragile. (winking face)
I know that you are not thinking about me. (hundred points)
Not thinking about us. (heart hands)
Joke’s on you, baby. (heart on fire)
It doesn’t matter. (grinning face with sweat)
Thoughts of you, a dopamine hit every time. (heart exclamation)
Unlike love or lust or obsession, limerence always has an expiration date. (face with hand over mouth)
That doesn’t stop me from frantically chasing the end of the high, pulsing with feral energy.
(smiling face with horns)
I want to remember the beauty of the burning ache in my heart. (heart on fire)
To remember what it feels like to be so enthusiastically and emphatically obsessed with you. (sparkle heart)
With an us that never was. (broken heart)
Never will be. (mending heart)
The end will be unremarkable. You won’t notice. (shushing face)
I’ll post 45% less emojis. (thumbs-up)
Still friends, but without the one-sided, urgent unhinged energy. (smiling face with sunglasses)
I miss us already, baby.
(slightly smiling face)
Johannah Simon is a corporate learning strategist by day and (sometimes) writer by night. You can find her on X @JohannahWrites and at www.thewritingtype.com.
