Contemporaneous: Chapters 60 – 61
60. In the movies, whenever couples hook up, the next scene usually cuts directly to wherever one of them live – they’ll be kissing, undressing, so passionate they can’t contain themselves. Everything will be so desperate but synchronized. But movies do that. It’s like seeing a character find parking right outside of their destination. Usually, in real life, we circle around, trying to find anywhere to park. But movies cut to the conclusion because they don’t have time to spend on that meaningless shit. Rachel walks me back to her car – a Yaris – and then drives me back to my own; she grabs my address, but says she’ll…
Contemporaneous: Chapter 59
59. A woman sits behind a table just inside the door – she’s maybe fifty, with curly silver hair, pink horn-rimmed glasses, and wearing this mauve cardigan that weighs down her shoulders until they’re sagging. I want to say she looks good for her age, but then realize I’m her age, but just don’t see myself that way. I give her my name, she consults her iPad, ticks me off, and then points me to a table in the corner with the number “8” on it. There are other tables, too, guys seated at each, nervously smoothing out their hair or their blazers or whatever, a few of them even…