As you read this short story please listen to "Paco" by Shellac. This story was written to the song as a Creative Writing project.

He left me for a girl with a red Corvette, a trailer queen what was I called her. The girl I mean, not the car. That was just the first stupid decision Paco had made. The second was the last straw. I had been sitting on our broken porch swing, enjoying the Northern night sky when he pulled up in his rusted out Chevy and parked next to my Nova. He’d been home for less than two minutes and I was ready to kill him.

“Where ya been all night?” I asked him as he approached me with dark eyes. There was no answer, I already knew the truth.

“So,” he sat down next to me, ignoring my question. “What you make for dinner?” He asked as he pulled out an expensive herbal cigarette. I watched him light it, the flames danced in the dark air and he took a drag. That man hadn’t smoked a day in his life until that Corvette driving blonde popped her hood for him at a car show.

I slammed the door and left him sitting alone on the porch swing. That dinner I had made for him, he didn’t get to touch it because I threw it down the drain. And he sure as hell didn’t get to sleep next to me either.

I woke up the next morning knowing exactly what had to be done. No more was he going to come home and treat me like the scum of earth at night but treat another woman like a queen during the day. The sun hadn’t peaked when I ran to my closet and dug to the bottom. My Grandma had once given me a little white envelope and told me it was for, “Emergency use only.”

Paco loved almond cookies to death. I made them from scratch as I had learned from my Grandma. “Almonds, vanilla, and whiskey will make a man love you.” But

my Grandma had also been known to throw a special ingredient into the mix when the occasion permitted. Carefully I prepared her famous recipe knowing fully week Paco would eat these cookies in one sitting. But Paco was about to bite off more than he could chew.

Paco wasn’t at work but I hunted him down and found him at his brother’s house. Not only was his truck parked in the lawn but also a red Corvette. The keys to my Nova accidentally scraped down the side and somehow, I don’t know how managed to carve obscenities onto her hood.

He answered the door shirtless, of course. Neither of us said a word as I handed him the plate of cookies. Maybe he would have said something but I left before he could take a breath. I didn’t turn around to see if he ate them, I would find out soon enough. Paco was still staring as I squalled my tires leaving.

Three days passed and the paper boy finally threw the newspaper into the yard. I normally just let it sit there but this time was different. I poured a cup of coffee and flipped to the middle. Not only did I find coupons for Macy’s, but I found his picture

in the obituary

"Cause of death: unknown."