One beak and two hearts.

Now, this is a curious title but it arose from a conversation earlier.About squid. I agreed to write a story with the title above because, I am told - I have yet to verify this - that squid have two hearts (interesting) and because the sentence had caught my attention.But squid are thought to be clever creatures, especially the giant sort, so here we go.

To Claire, then. And to all overlooked cephalopods. Now,  I may be having a funny turn here, but I thought I would knock out a sad little tale that verges, linguistically, on Mills and Boon (which obviously doesn't have squid in it). xxx

 ONE BEAK AND TWO HEARTS

I am a gentle sort of  fellow. But when aroused to great passion, I fell. And I fell hard. She took my beak tenderly in hers and caressed it, told me that I was hers, that she could not tell where I ended and she began. Afterwards, we lay entwined in each others' arms amongst the beds of kelp and I could not believe it was true.

But oh: cruel cruel. In time, she seemed distracted, avoided my eye, would not hold the tentacle I offered up to her, telling her that I would understand - that even if she loved me less than before, my love for her would go on. That I could even tolerate having her love me less than I loved her. I shamed myself at her beautiful, sucky feet.

There was someone else, of course. Her head was turned. The things she had said? Just bubbles in the deep, but still I could not help but love her. And she? She had only ever given me back a single heart for my double and would forget me all too soon.

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(I've tinkered slightly with a quotation from Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, here: it is when Beatrice refers to lending Benedick her heart for a while and receiving back only a single for the double she had given him...And I cannot believe I have tears in my eyes while reading this. About squid.)