Expiration Dates

by Rebecca Serle

We convey too many important things in too few words these days.

“Bright or radioactive?” Hugo considers this. “A lifetime with you could only be one thing.”

Conversations around weight bored me. There were so many more interesting things to talk about than the particular shape of someone’s body.

Murphy was never interested in anything canine. It is my genuine belief that he is a 1940s banker who was once cursed by a witch to live in a dog’s body. He sniffs almost nothing and is appalled by the game of fetch. You want me to catch a ball? With my mouth? I imagine him saying. How uncivilized.

Paris is a city that despises Americans but loves American chains.

The thing no one ever wants to say about dating is this: It’s hard to be real, sure. It’s harder to let someone else be.

“Daph, trust me. The only thing your mom wanted more than for us to get married was to marry me herself.”

I read in a magazine one time that every woman should spend five minutes a day staring at her naked body. I’d rather hurl myself off a balcony.

There is an Erewhon, which is the best upscale grocery store in all of California. The strawberries are twelve dollars, but they’re life-changing.

“chicken” since I was a baby, when he says I came out looking like a fresh piece of poultry.

Being with Hugo felt like having the sun shining down on you and you alone.

It’s hard to hold on to people the older we get. Life looks different for everyone, and you have to keep choosing one another. You have to make a conscious effort to say, over and over again, “You.” Not everyone makes that choice. Not everyone can.

Irina comes over and touches my arm. She’s rarely this affectionate, but when she is, I know how much she means it. “You do what you’re comfortable with, baby. And if you move in and you don’t like it, move out. You can always change it. And change it again. And again. The stakes do not have to be that high.”

I’ll get your pomodoro, and you can have some. Pasta is always good.” I want to grab him and kiss him right there at the table.

“I feel for him, Daphne,” he says. He’s silent for a moment. “It’s not his fault he’s still in love with you.”

cookies and brisket to celebrate my arrival. “Your own Brisket Brigade,” Jake tells me. “And you didn’t even have to die first.”

“Life is a catch-22,” Irina says. “That’s why God invented female friendship.”

Yeah, Daph, I want that. I want you. For as long as it lasts. Fifty years or five or fifteen fucking minutes.”

The third is that Murphy, now untethered, takes off after the rabbit. I’ve never seen him run this fast before. He’s running like he’s just discovered he has legs and wants to test exactly how fast and far they can take him. “Murphy!”

but I see him struggle to keep up. Who knew that tiny guy had it in him to be a dog.

simple truth: learning to be broken is learning to be whole.

“But the thing is, Daphne. No one’s time is promised. Not yours. Not Mom’s. Not mine. Not Jake’s. It’s just the way it is. We are all dying. Every day. And at some point it becomes a choice. Which one are you going to do today? Are you living or are you dying?”

But being surprised by life isn’t losing, it’s living. It’s messy and uncomfortable and complicated and beautiful. It’s life, all of it. The only way to get it wrong is to refuse to play.

“You know love isn’t enough—I’ve said it to you before—but that’s basic shit. Everyone knows that. You need water and food and toilet paper, to start.