Holding On
Thursday mornings: Clear our schedules, ship the children off to high school. Clutching espressos, tiptoe upstairs to make out like youngsters eluding the chaperone. Forget your most cancers scare. Forget how I used to be widowed by a suicide earlier than you appeared. Sex is our antidote to loss. We take our time. But within the pandemic? No longer. Teenagers fill the home, flung throughout chairs, splayed on sofas, Zooming — all day. And nighttime? Sleep is sexier than intercourse. Until college resumes. You contact my face. We lock eyes, holding on, like survivors do, attuned to moments that make days, by no means desirous to let go. — Rachel Zimmerman
Just Three Miles
Sandy was a straight transgender lady from the Bronx. I’m a homosexual, cisgender lady from Manhattan. Just three miles aside, we lived in several worlds. We met on the methadone clinic the place I used to be her physician. Every week for six months, we handled her hepatitis. Though feverish and weak, she was cured. But inside a yr, Sandy found she had superior lymphoma. On her deathbed, she advised me that she liked me. I had felt the belief develop between us in my small workplace, however I had no thought about her emotions. Eleven years later, I nonetheless miss her.— Melissa Stein
Where I Belong
Born in South Korea, I used to be adopted at start by a white navy household stationed at Kwangju Air Base. Having my very own kids has been a profound expertise. They are the one biologically associated household I’ve ever recognized. Throughout my life, I’ve struggled to determine the place I culturally belong. The battle feels much more complicated as a mom: How do I cross on the very a part of me that’s most international to myself? Without a map, my household and I experiment. At my son’s Baek-il, a Korean celebration of a kid’s 100th day of life, I felt at dwelling. — Lani Longacre
When a Lie Leads to Love
My boyfriend signed us up for a courting app below the guise of swinging whereas staying partnered. He managed my account and swiped by way of males for me. My boyfriend organized a gathering with Won for strictly informal intercourse. Won shared tales of his previous polyamorous partnerships and expressed a deep affinity for honesty. We didn’t have intercourse that evening, however I did break up with my boyfriend per week later, after studying that he had been dishonest on me after we had been monogamous. Now, Won and I are nonetheless in an open relationship — this time, with out secrets and techniques, simply satisfaction. — Lauren Bernales
