A young woman trapped in a traffic jam and being observed by a woman in another car recalls her relationship with a married man. He’s cute, says he is different, but in the end, it’s just a man taking some pleasure whilst his family is abroad. A touchingly written love affair.
“And impossible for him to keep my text messages. I wanted to ask how he could so efficiently delete my texts as soon as he read them, why he felt no urge to keep them on his phone, even if only for a few hours, even if only for a day. There were reams of questions unasked, gathering like rough pebbles in my throat. It was a strange thing to feel so close to a man-to tell him about my resentment of my parents, to lie supine for him with an abandon that was unfamiliar to me-and yet be unable to ask him questions, bound as I was by insecurity and unnamed longings.”