Present Or Past Tense Novels & Stories

“Do you regret it—what we had?” The man shakes his head instantly. “I would never.” A long pause, mingled with beating hearts and sweating foreheads, ensues. “I only regret how it ended. I regret leaving the way I did. But meeting you is the best thing that ever happened to me.” I notice his use of present tense instead of past tense. “Is?” I ask. My curiosity overwhelmed me.

"Ari⁠a, if I cannot speak‍ of the pas‌t or the future.‍.. w⁠hat is left?" "The p‌resent," I‌ said‌, leaning forward. "The way this‍ terrible⁠ pasta tastes⁠. The sound of the wind outside. The fact that you‌ have flou‍r o‍n‍ your ear." He immediately r‍eached u‍p, r‍ub‌bing h‌is‌ ear with a sheepish grin. "It’s ha⁠rder th‌a‍n it sounds. My entire life has been a series of post-mortems and‍ five-year projections‌. Living in the 'now' feels... quiet."

Not demanding. Just… present.

He'd observed something and arrived at a conclusion and was stating the conclusion. "How do you know?" she said. "The way you described it," he said. "Present tense. You said *what it would mean,* not *what it might mean.* Present tense is where the real plans live." She thought about that. He was right. She hadn't noticed she'd done it. She looked at him this careful, difficult, quietly attentive man and felt the wall in her chest do something it hadn't done in three years. It didn't come down. She wasn't ready for it to come down, and she suspected he wasn't either.

Like she had done a shift at a coffee shop. "I'm glad I could help," Irina said pleasantly. "Yes, you are." A smile. "You have a good heart, Irina. You always were." Were. Past tense. Already. Irina put a piece of toast in her mouth and chewed and maintained her expression with the focus of a woman doing competitive sport. It escalated quietly throughout the week.

He smiles and I bite my lip, finishing the ice cream I drop the cone. —It isn’t just an inferiority complex what I suffer from, Alex. - I whisper. - I like you too. And I'm scared. I fear of what might happen next, I’m afraid of... —The future doesn't exist, magissa mou - he cuts me off- It's an illusion. The past is every minute that is gone, the present is here and now but future will never come. Can't you see it? You live in fear instead of seizing the moment, fearing what comes next, fearing tomorrow without knowing that there is no such tomorrow. We only have today. You expect changes that are supposed to come with the future, but you will always live in the present, the same boring, sa