*

What kind of book are you writing?

A novel.

What is it about? 

About a guy who finishes law school, travels the world a bit and then moves to NY.

(She marvels at how the same story is written, but with different characters).

I see, she says, her eyes on the DJ. Joy Division pulses. A platinum blonde gyrates, her suspenders falling off her shoulders.

But, that’s you, she said.

I know, he said.

*

Like dark moths burning, she thinks. He holds her face carefully, like a cup he is afraid to spill.

She doesn’t know if she should envy him or feel bad for him. He is testing out his life for the first time and she can feel his uncertainty like a vein that runs just below the skin, forking out into the meridian.

*