My wife and I were having lunch at a bistro, and the couple behind us was discussing, quite loudly, the state of their marriage. It was clear they were on the outs. Were we actually eavesdropping? A little, yes, but they were impossible to ignore. Ordinarily, I enjoy listening to strangers air their dirty laundry in public; it makes them seem realer somehow. In this case, however, I just felt bad for them. I wrote this, I guess, as an
homage, because I felt like their efforts to salvage their relationship, futile though they might have been, deserved recognition.

Jeremy Griffin is the author of the story collections "A Last Resort
for Desperate People: Stories and a Novella" (SFAU Press), and
"Oceanography" (Orison Books). He teaches creative writing at Simpson College in Iowa.

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