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Me: It’s so late Can we talk tomorrow?

Tripp: No, it has to be tonight Please I need you

Frowning at my phone in the dark, I wondered what this could be about We’d broken up well over a year ago, and though we’d maintained a cordial if stiff relationship since then, we hadn’t had a private, in-person conversation since the night we split While I was considering how to politely handle this request, he texted again

Tripp: Please, Gogo It’s important

I softened slightly at the nickname, not because I liked it that much, but because it re tiht we’d spend the rest of our lives together I could be gracious

Me: OK Give me a minute Front door

I used the minute to yank out my ponytail, put on a bra under the Vassar t-shirt I’d been sleeping in, and slip into a pair of pink silk pajaainst the roof of my townhouse, so I hurried down the stairs to open the front door, but of course, Tripp was perfectly dry

“Hey,” I said, standing back as he closed his dripping umbrella and entered the foyer Hot, huainst the heat, then snapped on the light

“Hey” He set the uh his neatly trimmed dark blond hair He wore a pink button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and it was tucked in to a pair of white shorts with kelly green whales embroidered on them He had pants with little embroidered whales on theered on his familiar Sperry deck shoes No socks

“Thanks for letting me in,” he said

“What’s going on?” I twistedhair over one shoulder and crossed my arms over my chest

“Can we sit down? I need to talk to you” On his breath, I detected a whiff of scotch, and upon closer inspection of his face, I noticed his eyes were bloodshot

“Can’t we talk right here?”

He fidgeted “Look, I know the way things happened with us wasn’t cool”