While the new millennium moved toward us.
we were sitting on the steps
in front of her house
smoking cigarettes
she told me she had
sworn off sex
since her last boyfriend
I didn’t say anything
but I knew what
she was going through
because I had also just come out
of a bad relationship
with somebody I was in love with
and I could tell she found my
silence offensive
so I told her about a seriously
fucked up girlfriend I was once
trapped with for a year
I gave her a couple of stories about the
relationship
and told her how it left me
feeling
and I explained to her that I am
quiet when I see her at work
because I hate being around a group of people
and I explained to her that I’d never asked
her out because I was broke
she brushed some ash from
her leg and talked out of the side
of her mouth,
“We’ve all been there.”
“Yeah, but I live there.”
We had sex all night.