Where Are They Now

Knowing better, I picked up the phone when my (drunk) ex called following a brief text exchange tonight. Though we broke up in April, we’ve stayed friendly and have seen each other multiple times to return items, hand over mail, settle up bills, and generally deal with the fallout of a (relatively amicable) split (that was a long time coming after 12 years together, three of those as an engaged couple) during a pandemic.

But tonight was different. The beginning was genial, going over what we were up to and what we had for dinner. Then familiar territory was re-entered and voices were raised and…