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used to want me to be your wife. A lot of them did.”
She surprised me, I’d never told her that. I wanted to say to
her it wasn’t that I used to want her to be my wife, I still did
now. You might not believe it, but I suddenly felt like I
wanted to be in her unhappiness with her. True love is a
wound. You can only find it inside yourself when someone
else’s pain hurts you like your own.
But before I could explain this to her she said:
“Except that you guys working on building sites, wherever
your site is, that’s where your wife is. What do you know
about love.”
My courage failed me.
“Help me find my way out of here.”
“The gate’s over there,” I said. “I’ll walk you out.”
“I don’t want to use the gate.” She looked at me as if with
those old eyes from the cafeteria. “You know, I still think
you’re cute. But I already have a husband.”
_____