Neighborly

by Ellie Monago

The phrase social butterfly never quite fit Doug. He’s always been more of a social chameleon.

Anxiety craves a certainty it’ll never get, Dr. Morrison once told me.

I was six years old when Ellen and I met. Sometimes I think I would have deeply loved anyone I met at that period of my life, before anything bad had happened to me, when I was so open to the world that I would have imprinted on any child just like ducklings do.

Vows aside, any couple’s love is conditional. In a marriage, what’s tied can be untied.