(This is about my co-worker)

Francesca and I were in love. She and her best friend were staying with me for a few days, and we were deciding on how we were going to tell her husband. I suggested she use her friend as a cover up to explain who she was with all this time, and the next thing I knew he was opening the front door and letting himself in. I turned and ran out the back door and jumped into the lake, scared as hell as to what he’d do to me.

I swam along the shoreline and soon found myself in a bar along the river discussing everything with my mom and dad. I knew in my heart that this is what I wanted and I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

Dad was filling me in with what was happening while I was gone, saying “Well, the marriage is over. They’re getting divorced. And I hear he’s carrying a gun now, so watch out.”

Again, like, clockwork, her ex walks into the bar (with Fran following behind, as if she knew this needed to happen but wasn’t looking forward to it) and heads straight for me.

Again, I turned and ran like a little girl, sprinting out the back door and jumping head first into the water. I only made it a few hundred yards before getting caught in a weed bed of some sort, and he was right behind me with a speedboat, which made it futile for me to try any more escape.

He pulled up and offered his hand, and I hesitated slightly before becoming ever-grateful for his self-caused rescue. We sat in the boat sizing each other up, and it was clear that there would be no fisticuffs made between us.

I looked at his eyes, and thought it was beautiful the way his face resembled their son’s.

“That’s where he got it from!” I thought silently, and something inside me itched with jealousy.

Unsure of what was about to happen, Fran stood shouting from the shore with all of her might. He looked over at her and yelled “Okay, okay, relax!” and, looking away, he muttered “Bitch.”

I looked at him as if to say “Yeah, I know what you mean” but couldn’t bring myself to say it because I knew he had her memorized like a favorite book. He knew all of her secrets and idiosyncrasies, and I left the dream sitting in that boat and feeling happier than I ever remember being because I knew it would only be a matter of time before I would have a favorite book of my own memorized too.