It was not that he was a dangerous man, rather a volatile combination of all the bad aspects of all the good men I've known. We were both tense about it and the air was ready to crack.   Was he going to kiss me? Yes.   Would I stop him? Oh, no.

Skyler took me to a complicated apartment building to show me the couches and the pond. I pretended to have been there lots of times before. We never did find the couches. The pond was unimpressive. Something about us was shy for no reason and we decided to drive to Florida. I gathered everyone around a table and told them they'd have to be each other's role models in our absence, they'd have to make do.

The bus rocked me to sleep, remembering other buses. The a.c. was too cold on my face so I pulled my sweater up and snuggled into the warm upholstery. I didn't know where I was going but the bus always knew. People tried to talk to me but I was far too busy.