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The pool was completely empty, which surprised me, since there's usually
at least two mothers there with their diapered kids alternately
soaking up and peeing in the baby pool. I looked at Daniel in
his crisp, white shirt with his rolled long sleeves, and then
down at myself in my navy skirt and polo shirt. "We look
like a preppy married couple," I said.
Daniel responded, "Maybe one day we'll be married."
"Maybe," I laughed, and my heart fell.
I wanted to smash my face into his and cry for hours down into
his throat. For being so lazy, for not having any viable dreams,
for thinking in the back of my head that he could be enough
and then not being willing to believe in that idea after all.
He pulled off my shirt and I unbuttoned his and
that made me feel thirty. And then we held hands and ran and
jumped into the pool and I felt five.
Excerpt from Like
the Red Panda, by Andrea
Seigel
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