Since We Fell

by Dennis Lehane

That same summer, late into her afternoon cocktails, she told her, “A man is the stories he tells about himself, and most of those stories are lies. Never look too closely. If you uncover his lies, it’ll humiliate you both. Best to just live with the bullshit.”

That sudden, uncertain smile of a man who had, at some point in his life, been conditioned to ask for permission before he expressed joy.