I got off at the wrong stop, but the right street, and walked. I watched the bus stop at the stop I should have gotten off at. The next day I would know. I was thinking about my boyfriend who was no longer my boyfriend and how he wanted to move out here with me but I had decided I needed a clean break, a fresh start. Why had I decided that? I would call him and let him tell me how much he missed me.
I let myself into the house and lowered the air conditioner, turned on the TV and put a bag of popcorn in the microwave, everything humming and working and saying hello and welcome; we’re glad you’ve returned! I would figure this out, I thought, and I would. I would soon be backing into parking spaces and tooling around the city. I would nearly hit a very attractive young man on a bike and he’d skid and fall but would catch himself before hitting the pavement. He would be angry but no harm done. He would not ask for my number or become the love of my life, like he would in a good story, in a story I couldn’t write. I would become a vegetarian, swim in cold springs with elderly people before everyone else woke up, hike up a pink hill in the wrong shoes. I would know when things opened and closed and how to get there and where to park and what to order and I would have new boyfriends I would not marry. But all of this would come later and take time, and perhaps it would take me longer than it would take other people but there were some who never left home, who never went anywhere at all.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
These stories were written over an eight-year period and I feel fortunate to have had so many champions along the way. Thanks to Chris Offutt, Lee Durkee, Jeff Landon, Paula Bomer, Vincent Scarpa, Sarah Bridgins, Matt Bell, Aaron Burch, Lauren Becker, Greg Marshall, Elizabeth Ellen, Roxane Gay, Kelly Luce, Mike Young, Claudia Smith Chen, and Mark Jay Mirsky.
Special thanks to those who have made my life as a writer possible, but especially the Michener Center at the University of Texas, John and Renée Grisham, and the English Department at Ole Miss.
I’m so happy to have the support of Katie Adams and Live-right, as well as my agent, Sam Stoloff.
And, of course, my exes: you’ve given me material for years to come.