Acts of Service

by Lillian Fishman

Oh, really? You can’t betray his trust? Fatima looked at me in mock surprise, holding the kettle aloft over the counter. Anytime you want, you can forsake this dinner party and jump into real life! Come on, Fati. What? Isn’t it time you left the fucking dinner party and got real?

ISNT IT TIME YOU LEFT THE FUCKING DINNER PARTY AND GOT REAL 🗣️🗣️🗣️

I love you, Fatima said, her tone softening. I want you to be safe, and I don’t want you to be gaslit all the time. I want people to respect you! For you to be able to rely on them! I’m not the one putting you through something. I love you, Eve, that’s all. This is called love. I felt heartbroken then. It was Fatima I would betray by helping Nathan, earnest, determined Fatima, Fatima who harbored none of my weaknesses, simply because she hoped for more from women than this blind loyalty.

love you fatima

When I thought of Nathan now I could think only of two things in tandem, never one without the other, never anything else: the richness of what he had given me and his happy, mysterious freedom, his nakedness in the bedroom uptown and right beside it the car and the open road I envisioned him driving down. His was the greatest act of service I had ever received.

horrible way to end a book about a man being sued for sexual harassment