Very cloudy, but good, he says. I won't debate that. His eyes. I swallow with lumps. He smiles. I'm blushing. I ask for the menu. I can't decide. You're very beautiful. I gulp it down. You're even hotter than your pictures. I order another one. I make up my mind. French fries, coleslaw and shaved carrot. His eyes. I'm drowning. Water. Water. Here comes the waiter. I pull myself together. I gulp this one down as well. His eyes. I'm blushing. Mici. Mici it is, he says. You're so beautiful, he says. I remain silent. He's so bald and fat. I burp. He winces. Water. Water. Waiter. I wince. I'll leave him a nice tip.
(Translated by Oana Ionescu / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year I / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In May 2023, the group has 11,260 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)
Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale. 
