I enjoy good design, he tells her, and she smiles and says, Amazingly I’m still here, and the progression of things weren’t so fluid anymore.

And then I surrendered, and she said, I like my men stronger, and I said, Me too, and she said, I knew it, and my therapist was wrong again.

And then he said it again, and she stormed out of the house, daring him repeat himself, and then he called her up and he said, I don’t care.

Your love is embarrassing, she tells me and I say, You’re sure it’s not my shoes? and she says, And your shoes, and I found that reassuring.

The wind blew in and she said, That’s what I call a gust. And within her wonder lived my denial and I spat into the wind and closed my eyes.

He turned up the stereo and picked up an ax. What are you going to do with that ax? she cried. Then he went outside and chopped down a tree.