The Latecomer

by Jean Hanff Korelitz

This was the flaw in making a bargain with yourself. There is no one else there to agree to the terms.

Eighteen years of being coddled, overscheduled, and overseen, paid attention to in all of the worst ways (and in none of the ways that mattered),

They had not fought or held resentments toward each other, and they had tolerated each other’s less than optimal personal habits with equanimity (or, viewed slightly differently, with a mutual lack of consciousness). Still, they were not moving on together.

baffling mosh pit of adult life