Page 110 of Wayfarers

“What if I told you I had none.”

“None?”

“Nothing to speak of. I’ve never had a serious relationship.”

“You’re not aro are you?”

“Aro?”

“Aromantic. It’s where you don’t have romantic attraction to other people.”

“Oh yeah, no, I definitely experience romantic feelings.” I’m hoping I didn’t say that too enthusiastically.

“But you haven’t ever had a serious relationship?”

I stare out the window for a few beats, letting the silence unspool, trying to decide if the one story I have is worth telling. I go for it. “Five days when I was fourteen.”

“Your longest relationship was five days?”

“We moved around too much. I met her when we were picking avocados together in California.”

“What was her name?”

“Isabela. She was from Mexico.”

“And that was a serious relationship?”

“I mean, no. We kissed three times. But the closest I’ve got.”

“Did you love her?”

“I said it wasn’t a serious relationship.”

“In terms of duration,” Sylvie says. “But maybe in terms of feeling. Do you wish you’d gotten more time with her?”

“Honestly, I didn’t let myself even entertain the idea. I knew how temporary it was, like everything in my life.”

“How about now? Are you going to let yourself entertain the idea?”

“Of course, for the right person. I wish I’d gotten more time with Isabela.”

“What would your right person be like?”

Sylvie Ideas

Kind, of course. Cat person. Doesn’t invent

a truth-telling game then immediately tell a lie. Has epiphanies.

Has never paid with an app. Philosophical. Not self-obsessed. Someone

with a past she wears lightly, like a diaphanous scarf. Someone

who hedges before she uses a word like diaphanous

so she doesn’t sound so full of herself. Years ago

I could shut my eyes and call my right person