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[...] We ’d both learned—not from each other; we ’ve both been around the block—that the big moments you plan never work, so we decided against the French restaurant two towns over with the forty-dollar prix fixe dinner, and went to the diner on 28. We took a booth, ordered pancakes and sausage and…

At the telephone, Clark had a clear view out back and down to the porch. He wanted to get drunk with his wife once more. He wanted to tell her, from the greater perspective he had, that to own only a little talent, like his, was an awful, plaguing thing; that being only a little special meant you e…

Love drains from you, takes with it much of your blood sugar and water weight. You are like a house slowly losing its electricity, the fans slowing, the lights dimming and flickering; the clocks stop and go and stop.

At Karma-Kola the days are peg-legged and aimless, collapsing into one another …

Don’t lose your resolve. Fumble for your list. Sputter things out as convincingly as possible.

Say: “I suffer indignities at your hands. And agonies of duh feet. I don’t know why I joke. I hurt.”

“That is why.”

“What?”

“That is why.”

“But you don’t really care.” Wince. It sounds piti…

Hilda is worried about you and wants to fix you up with a cousin of hers from Brooklyn.

Ask wearily: “What ’s his name?”

She looks at you, frowning. “Mark. He ’s a banker. And what the hell kind of attitude is that?”