A love story told in answering machine messages. Saying “I love you” to someone who says it first, isn’t supposed to lead to a break-up, but that’s what happens to Sully and Lou. Sully is out and proud while Lou is in the closet, so when their relationship deepens, Lou runs. But then Lou starts leaving emotional messages of remorse on Sully’s answering machine. Sully is torn between his love for Lou and his attempts to get over him. With each message, Lou’s regrets deepen. With each message, it becomes more difficult for Sully to forget him. With each message, Sully finds it harder to want to move on. Can old love poems and heartbreaking honesty help Sully and Lou find their way back to each other?

Late Night Poetry

“Um hi. It’s me again. Lou. I…uh…just wanted to apologize for calling you drunk in the middle of the night. I shouldn’t have. I don’t blame you if you hate me. What am I saying? Of course, you hate me. I broke up with you after telling you I love you. What kind of asshole does that? Anyway. Sorry. I won’t call again. Sorry.”


I listen to both messages when I come home that afternoon. After yesterday’s late shift was over, it was too cold to bike home in the middle of the night, so Shirley, my co-waitress at the bar where I work weekends, offered to let me sleep on her couch, which in hindsight was good, or I would have answered the phone in the middle of the night and ended up with a drunk-as-a-skunk Lou on the other end of the line.


I don’t know which would have been worse: the late-night drunken call or the remorseful, hung-over one.


Chapter 2