An Arrow to Amsterdam
Traveling Berlin solo, I download a dating app to find someone in the famously queer city. Waiting at a cafe, I text: “all black, striped bag, blond head.” Maren embraces me with ease. We talk for hours, but I’m so aware of our age gap that I never make a move. As I travel through Europe, her texts keep coming — sweet, intimate, funny. Finally, she sends a map with arrows pointing back to Berlin. I send an arrow pointing to Amsterdam, my final stop before returning to California. Two beautiful Dutch days have led to two deeply romantic years. — Abigail Severance
Visions of My Father
Rounding the snack aisle at Trader Joe’s, I see them examining scones: a woman around my age, mid-50s, and her father, in his 80s. Stooped yet still tall, with surfer-blond hair, he resembles my dad, gone a quarter of a century. It’s only through others that I can imagine what he’d be like now. “Those cranberry orange scones are the best,” I say. They thank me for the tip. Later in the parking lot, I watch as she gently guides him into the car. I let my tears fall, grateful for a glimpse of another daughter’s love. — Joelle Fraser
A Reorganized Life
After months of dating, Elena offered to help me move into a new Italian apartment. I warned her about my book collection: 12 boxes of tomes accumulated over years of grad school. She arrived early with her own moving gloves. While I struggled with furniture, she methodically labeled each box by author and era. After unpacking in my new place, I discovered she’d reorganized my entire library by philosophical movement, creating a system more elegant than anything I’d managed in years. I realized then that I wasn’t just moving apartments; I was moving toward a better, restructured life with her. — Luciano Magaldi Sardella
From Five to Forever
I was drawn to her pencil case before I was drawn to her. Looking at the metal tin with its rainbow collection of gel pens, I thought, “I need access.” That’s how, at age 5, Jia became my best friend. Our relationship has ebbed and flowed over the years. We’ve exchanged “best” for “oldest” while holding on fiercely to “friend.” Now we’re long distance. She’s back home in Adelaide, Australia, still getting invited to underground raves while I’m in New Jersey, getting rowdy at my book club. We’re not opposites, but counterweights, keeping each other steady for almost 30 years. — Olga Grudinina
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