Relationships

She shared in ways I could never understand. She told anyone who would listen about their relationship—how he wasn’t right for her, how he fucked wrong, how he fucked her but never made love to her.

Once, I saw her waiting by the mail slot for the mailman to arrive. The moment he showed up, she held the slot open and launched into a full-on conversation, describing in graphic detail how he fucked her without a hint of tenderness. It went on for at least five minutes. I watched the poor guy try to pull away, and when he finally did, I swear he threw the neighbor’s mail in the air and sprinted to his van. We never saw that mailman again.

She’d take walks around the neighborhood, stopping anyone who would give her a moment to spill every detail of their relationship. They eventually banned her from the local market because she made everyone so uncomfortable. Even at home, she’d talk to her cat—and sometimes the neighborhood cats—about him.

But she never broke up with him.