The Good Part

by Sophie Cousens

And once again, my desire to date has been tempered by the depressing reality that is 99 percent of men.

“Life is never quite sorted, whatever stage you’re at.”

“I’m fine, I just get a little confused when I drink gin,” I say, reluctant to traumatize this poor boy any more than is necessary. I don’t want him going to school and telling everyone that his mother has been abducted by aliens. Though now he might go to school and tell everyone his mother is an alcoholic.

“Did my phone just tell me I’m fat?” I ask the cabdriver. “Welcome to the future, love,”

And I know, I know, I’m shallow and vain, but honestly, nothing fixes a bout of existential depression like a pair of killer heels and a fitted purple suit with epic shoulder pads.

it makes Harry Styles’s wardrobe look positively conservative.

Good hugs are underrated; I don’t think any of my past boyfriends have been great huggers, it always felt perfunctory or transitory. With Sam, it feels like his arms are creating a force field around me. It’s as though his body is telling me that if he could, he would absorb my every worry or pain.

This French martini really is delicious, and I congratulate Future Me on her taste in both men and cocktails.

“I don’t feel like you’ve changed at all.” “Maybe that’s because we all revert to being teenagers when we’re around each other,” I say, leaning my head against Roisin’s shoulder. “Or your friends simply know you the best,” says Faye.

“There’s not a room you could be in and not add value,”

We make love right there against the door, and I know then, whatever plane of the space-time continuum I am living in, right now, there is nowhere else I want to be.

Of all the things I have had to adapt to, being loved by this man has been the easiest to accept.

We fit together so perfectly; it feels impossible I could end up anywhere but here.

“Sam, I love you.” It’s the first time I’ve said it, but as the words leave my mouth, I know it’s the truest thing I’ve ever said.

Make your friends on purpose. Learn things on purpose. Enjoy things on purpose. Work hard on purpose. Have adventures on purpose. You’re sort of hunter-gathering for Future You