A fish on baited breath

I know I shouldn't like you still. If I were thinking rationally about the whole thing, I would have stopped talking to you ages ago, not to mention stopped thinking about you. I would look back and see that the crumbs you threw me never did come together to make a hearty piece of bread. My mind, if I was rational these days, would be reverberating with your words of mockery.

Instead, I remember that you said "I love you" after one particularly gruesome grilling. You said it as I started to walk away from you. Like a fish that can't resist the bait, I find myself smiling at you again, smiling at the memory, at that little triumph.

If I was rational, I would know that the hook does not come far behind the fattened worm, but I am not rational these days. I keep letting you reel me in over and over, and just when it seems like I've gasped the last bit of goodness I can get from our little situation, you say something like "I love you," and I dive back into the water to be fooled again.