He was always giving pieces of himself away—a hand, a sympathetic ear, a shoulder to cry on—until he met her, perfectly complete. “Except for one thing,” she said. “I haven’t got a heart.” And since he would rather be loved than love himself, he made one final offering.

Abby Bayani-Heitzman (she/they/siya) is a Filipino American writer born and raised in Northeast Kansas, where she continues to live and work.