That Summer

by Jennifer Weiner

“White guys—especially white guys who are part of a family business—they fail upward, or they move sideways. And they always come out fine in the end.”

for old married ladies like them, making a new friend was the closest they could get to falling in love.

He’s always been one of those born-on-third-base-and-thinks-he-hit-a-triple types.

Some already carried themselves with an air of entitlement; nothing so obvious as noses in the air; just a subtle way of walking and holding themselves that telegraphed, I’m better than you are.

Hal loved her, too. He didn’t treat her like a child, just like… someone less than him, her mind whispered. Someone who wasn’t as smart or as important, someone whose opinion barely registered, and whose voice didn’t matter much. At least, not as much as his did.

“Every day of my life,” he said, speaking each word distinctly through his tears, “I have tried to be a better man than I was that night.”