The Truth About Forever

It's not, I repeated in my head, and looking back later, it seemed to me that was the moment everything really changed. When I said these words, not even aloud, and in doing so made my own wish: that for me this could somehow, someday, really be true.

"Or maybe you're just really extraordinary."

perfect." I sighed. "Being…"

As I tried to come up with something, he flicked

Being perfect? I wouldn't know."

"Not being perfect." I sighed. "Being…"

As I tried to come up with something, he flicked a bug off his arm.

"… gorgeous," I finished. Two weeks earlier, this would have mortified me: I could just see myself bursting into flames from the shame. But now, I only felt a slight twinge as I took another sip of my beer and waited for him to answer.

"Again," he said, as the parking lot girls passed by, eyeing both of us, "I wouldn't know. You tell me."

"Donneven," I said, in my best Monica imitation, and he laughed. "We're not talking about me."

"We could be,"

I took in a breath. "To win, one person has to refuse to answer a question," I said. "So, for example, let's say I ask you a question and you don't answer it. Then you get to ask me a question, and if I answer it, I win."

He reached over and picked it up, brushing his fingers over the angel's tinny toes. "Here."

"Wes. I can't."

"You can. You'll pay me back somehow."

"How?"

He thought for a second. "Someday, you'll agree to run that mile with me. And then we'll know for sure whether you can kick my ass."

"I'd rather pay you for it," I said, as I reached into my back pocket for my wallet. "How much?"

"Macy, I was kidding. I know you could kick my ass." He looked at me, smiling. Sa-woon, I thought. "Look. Just take it."

Maybe he'd even been there those days, as I sat in the car, looking up at the loops of barbed wire along the fence, while cars whizzed by on the highway behind me.

"Well, he'll never brag on it," she said, pulling the mayonnaise over to her. "That's how he is. His mom was the same way. Quiet and incredible. I really envy that."

There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is."

"It makes you human. We all deal with things differently