I straighten my shoulders.
I’m gonna get my man,I think.
I’m gonna get us back on track.
And for the first time in weeks, it feels possible.
CHAPTER 11
ETHAN
The next fewweeks slide into something that almost feels… normal.
Which is weird.
Because nothing about us is normal.
But somehow life starts organizing itself into couples.
Like we’re all pairing off two by two without talking about it.
Tony meets Melissa one night at the docks. She’s twenty-four, works in big Pharma— sleek dark hair and big blue eyes. Italian last name. Tony is a goner.
I know it’s serious because he starts ironing shirts.
Tony has never ironed a shirt in his life.
Then suddenly it’s “double dates” and “you guys free Friday?” and Melissa bringing homemade brownies to the marina like she’s already someone’s wife. The Artemis might be in Plymouth but Tony’s sport fishing boat finds another open slip.
Beth and Chris start disappearing to Red Sox games.
Mark’s got some new girl from accounting.
Happy hours splinter into smaller groups. Email threads multiply. Half the time I don’t even know who’s going out with who anymore.
It’s like high school but with car payments and rent.
Even Beth somehow gets Sean to show up more.
I catch them one night outside The Dockyard bar, her arm looped through his, laughing at something he whispers in her ear.
She looks… lighter.
Like she’s finally getting what she wanted.
Good for her.
Really.
I mean that.
Then Jim stops by my desk on a Thursday.
Not emails.
Not calls.
Actually walks over.
