Elementary

 

I was annoyed and fascinated by my particle-physicist love-interest in equal proportions. As we strolled around Geneva he ranted on and I felt stupider and stupider.
 Then he remarked, between licks of HÄAGEN-DAZS "..existence of black hole".
 I grinned. Oh Sergei! So much about particles. But so little about articles.
 

All the pain

 

 My knees gave way beneath me and I sank to the hospital floor.
"He died on impact," the doctor was saying, "There was no pain."
I was only half aware of hands on my shoulders; of the fact that I'd begun to scream.
He'd left all the pain to me.