Story
By Lydia Davis, first published in Break It Down: Stories
A woman confronts her boyfriend about suspicious behavior involving another woman and discovers that she cannot trust anything he says.
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Plot Summary
A woman receives a message from her boyfriend that he is busy and cannot come home for a while, as he is out with a past girlfriend. The woman becomes increasingly stressed about the situation and tries to leave a note on his door but does not know which is his. She has been divorced in the past and understands what it feels like to be angry at someone with whom she is in love. She begins to call him repeatedly but receives no answer, so she drives over to his apartment complex and attempts to leave a note on his garage door, but she does not know which one is his. The woman notices an unfamiliar car nearby and suspects it belongs to the other woman. To her surprise, her boyfriend comes outside and hugs her tightly. He insists that the other woman was not here when he called her and that she came later; the only reason she is talking with him is because she is encountering personal difficulties. He mentions something about going out to get a beer. The woman works hard to understand the timeline of when the two were out together, versus when they came back to his house, versus when she herself came to check on them. She also struggles to understand the role of the calls between him and herself. The woman comes to the conclusion that she cannot parse out what is true and what is a lie, so their relationship is very fraught.
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