June decided against wearing the new shoes eventually; she reckoned that if her feet were sore she might look funny when she walked, it wouldn’t be cool. She had such a miserable experience more than once before. The streets in Hong Kong were not really easy to walk with high heels, she’d avoid getting herself in trouble with a bunch of her college classmates. June put on her sneakers and took off, hoping there would be occasions later for her shiny green mary jane.

When I left, I was just starting to come down, and coming down from uppers is probably the worst thing anyone can experience: all of your body except your heart and your brain is ready to go to sleep. It’s better if you have benzos on hand, but they were hard to come by…

The new girl said it so much that the woman got tired of hearing it. She tried tuning it out but it came out of her mouth everywhere. The new girl hit the wrong button or gave back too much change — "I’m sorry, I'm new here." She used the wrong broom to sweep or folded the credit card applications the wrong way (they’d gotten in trouble for making the fold where the interest information was) — "I’m sorry, I’m new here." 

There’s Styrofoam plates in our laps with meatloaf and applesauce teetering the edges. I feel something sticky on the inside of my wrist and notice some of the sauce has toppled onto it. Before I can wipe it off the dog makes haste and licks it up. My wife drops her fork at the same time and I watch as a small piece of her chin falls off and smacks against the floor.

“It’s okay— Maureen will clean it up.”

He led me down the hallway, passing by half-open doors leading to his baby girl’s room, empty and darkened from the lack of her presence. If I had not been there, emptiness would have consumed the entire house. On Joey’s bed, unmade on one side only, lay a pile of gorgeous lingerie. Lace, silk, harnessed, dresses, bras, specialty underwear. More than I owned, certainly. Most of it was black. In a chair in the corner were her other clothes, set up more neatly, all still attached to their hangers. My eyes were drawn primarily in the direction of the normal, business-casual attire fit for a mom and a professional. He saw me staring at them, and said, “Ah, those ones are getting donated tomorrow. She wouldn’t have wanted me to keep stuff that we can’t use.

Benjamin was miserable. He lay on the couch trying to will himself to stand back up and go to bed and spend one last night with his girlfriend who would be gone for months. The past months with her had been the happiest of his life, and now that was slipping away. He tried to stand back up, but felt too woozy and fell backwards onto the cushions. Oralee eventually came out of the bathroom and slept beside him on the couch. In the morning, she left.