A seventy-year-old woman has a confident and gregarious neighbor, a thirty-year-old man named Richard who throws parties and leads an active sex life. The two become friends, with Richard biking them around the city and telling her stories connected to the places that they visit. Then, Richard throws a party during which they play spin the bottle, at the end of which he and the woman end up (sort of) having sex. They don't see each other for some time, during which she can hear him having parties and women through the wall. After a few weeks, their affair begins in earnest, and Richard stops having parties as often. Their relationship is both completely serious and not at all serious at once—Richard tells her he loves her, but also says that she should get a boyfriend. Once, she goes with him to see his ex-turned-best-friend Eve and her new boyfriend, and she ends up on the porch with the boyfriend, who talks about tornadoes, and how they're destructive yet captivating all at once. The relationship with Richard pretty much ends after this afternoon. Richard talks about how he isn't over Eve, they have sex one last mind-blowing time, and then she leaves. They see each other once again later that year, at the boyfriend's funeral. She thinks about life, and time, and why someone might die so young, or love the way they did. When Richard calls out to her another time outside their building, she doesn't respond. She thinks of herself as a tornado, independent, destructive yet glorious, and doesn't want him to come near.