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I’m just borrowing your material. What did you think of him?

The dots come and go. Come back.

Olivia

He seems better than most kids. He can hold a conversation. He has opinions. I respect that.

Luke

That’s my kid. Opinions for days.

I type the next one, delete it, then type it again, because it’s true.

He’s a pretty good kid.

Olivia

And you’re a good dad.

I read that one twice.

Luke

That’s a nice thing to say.

Olivia

I mean it.

I sit with that longer than I mean to. Then I push, because if I don’t I’ll wonder about it all night.

Luke

Now back to you. How do you feel about all of it?

This time the dots take a while. They appear. They stop. They appear again. I watch them like they owe me money.

Olivia

I don’t know.

Three words. And I start bracing for the rest of it. This is the part where she lets me down easy. Where she says Bo’s great but she didn’t sign up for somebody else’s ten-year-old, and I tell her I get it, because I do.

The next text lands before I can talk myself all the way off the ledge.

Olivia

I never pictured my life with kids.

I should feel relieved. We’re friends. Friends don’t have to picture anything.

Instead I want to argue with a woman over text at ten at night.

I don’t. I take the easy exit, the one we both keep taking.

Luke

Well. Good thing we’re just friends.