Eligible

by Curtis Sittenfeld

He seemed simultaneously like a stranger and someone she knew extremely well; there was either an enormous amount to say or nothing at all.

Time seemed, as it always does in adulthood after a particular stretch has concluded, no matter how ponderous or unpleasant the stretch was to endure, to have passed quickly indeed.

But he looked out for me in a steady, ongoing way, and I hope I did the same for him.”

“There’s a belief that to take care of someone else, or to let someone else take care of you—that both are inherently unfeminist. I don’t agree. There’s no shame in devoting yourself to another person, as long as he devotes himself to you in return.”

Sometimes it amazes me how much these defining parts of our lives hinge on chance.”

she might even have felt that self-congratulatory pride that heterosexual white people are known to experience due to proximate diversity.