Windfall 2011

of her friends on the corner by the supermarket, and I spent half of my senior year sleeping on her floor next to the bed. I don’t know why I did that. I think I preferred sleeping on her carpet, near her, to sleeping alone. Or with other girls. I liked waking up and drinking coffee with her.

I dated some other girls now and then – I remember Cheryl and Bea – but it wasn’t too serious. I guess I failed to mention to my girlfriends the nights I spent on the roof of Olivia’s house or in her kitchen drawing absurd pictures on the homework we should have been doing. Bea got mad once when she came over for dinner and Olivia was taking a shower in my bathroom, but I thought that was pretty stupid. It wasn’t like I was showering with her. Bea threw the casserole she had brought on my kitchen floor. We stopped dating a little while after that.

At the end of the year, Olivia met a boy named James Dillon.

I liked him alright, even though he didn’t seem to care for me. Well, I guess I know why. He was into business and I thought he was a little boring. He never wanted to go out on the golf course and slide down the hills on cardboard boxes, or play Scrabble, but he had a nice strong jaw and he acted like he was about thirty-five. Olivia went nuts over the guy and she always got upset when he didn’t want me around, but we started spending less and less time together. By the time we graduated, they were engaged and I hardly heard from Olivia anymore.

I married Jan a few years later. Jan’s pretty. She has short blonde hair and light freckles on her nose, and her eyes are clear and brown. She’s small – her little arms are about half the circumference of mine. I met her through a friend and we dated for a few months, and then we were married. It was pretty straightforward. She was a nice girl and she loved me and it seemed like a sure thing. Olivia and James came to the wedding. James shook my hand very formally and Olivia hugged me. I don’t remember if we said things. She had her arm around James’s waist.

Jan and I don’t have any children. We tried for a couple of years, but it turns out I can’t have kids. Jan resents me a little, I think.

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