Olivia Parker 
It was 11:30 on an April Saturday, on a busy brunch patio in Austin. My friend Maya had brought her boyfriend Jake to meet me. Our server was a young guy with a nose ring who was clearly slammed. Our eggs took about 25 minutes, which was annoying but normal. Jake snapped his fingers and … Read more
My friend Nadia signed her first solo lease at 10:45 on a snowy Saturday in January. I sat next to her in a cramped Denver leasing office. Six weeks earlier, she and her ex Chris had split after four years together. Their old lease had his name listed first. The agent asked if it was … Read more
My friend Monica and I rode the Bainbridge ferry one rainy September Saturday. It was 4:10 in the afternoon, and the windows were foggy. She stared at the gray water and finally said what was on her mind. Her husband Luis wanted to move from Seattle to San Antonio. His dad had knee surgery in … Read more
It was 2:15 on Labor Day at a crowded Lake Michigan beach. My friend Kelsey came out of the cold water holding up a bare hand. Her fiance Ryan had proposed just five weeks earlier on a dock at sunset. Now the ring was somewhere in the sand or the waves. She sat down on … Read more
The email came at 9:50 on a snowy Tuesday night in January. I was on Noah’s living room floor with cold lo mein in my lap. It was the score for a certification exam I had studied for since August. I missed passing by four points. My first instinct was to close the laptop and … Read more
On the first Sunday of November, I sat in a Safeway parking lot in Phoenix. It was 6:10 at night, and his call had not come. Ethan lived in Chicago back then, and Arizona never changes its clocks. His phone jumped back an hour, and mine stayed put. His call finally came at 7:10 my … Read more
It was 5:40 in the morning at O’Hare, and sleet was hitting the windshield. Ethan pulled up to the Terminal 1 curb with the hazards on. It was February, near the end of our second year of long distance. I had a 7:05 flight back to Phoenix and a lump in my throat. A security … Read more
Ethan said “I told you so” in a hardware store parking lot. It was 2:30 on a rainy Saturday in April. I was holding a gallon of paint for my bedroom wall. It was supposed to be soft gray, and it looked like a swimming pool. He had warned me in the store, and he … Read more
My sister Rachel called me from her car on a gray February afternoon. It was 12:30, and she was parked outside a grocery store in Columbus. Her husband Ben had told her his big plan over breakfast that morning. He wanted to quit his accounting job and open a bike repair shop. His exact words … Read more
At 1:40 on a Tuesday morning in July, I woke up shivering in Sam’s bed. His air conditioner was set to 66, and he was on top of the sheets. I stay over at his apartment two or three nights a week. We do not live together, so his bedroom runs on his rules. Sam … Read more
