Guest Lecturer

The celebrated author staggered back against the stool, his glass broke, and everyone turned. The author’s face was red around unlooking eyes. Before the bartender could yell, the girl clasped the boy's hand and ran through the door.

“You punched Frank Dickey,” she said.

“He touched your thigh,” he said.

She kissed him on the sidewalk as the rain fell.

Her writing carried her to a tenure track; his dropped him off at retail management. They split before she studied abroad the next semester, so they did not have Paris, but they always had the curb outside the college dive.