Startle, Memories, and Uniqlo

Nadia sat at the mall coffee shop with Xiao Mei. The girl’s day had only just begun and something had happened with Nika.

She texted Nika: “Hey are you okay?”

Maybe Nadia should have followed after, instead stayed sat at the table.

“I can’t wait to start dating again here in Paris…” Xiao Mei said, “I’m feeling the big rugby player vibe.”

Nadia nodded. She was never one to objectify men. Even though since the end of her marriage with Greg, she had slept with dozens of men. Loving someone had nothing to do with sex.

Simon, the bull who started it all, had said all those years ago…

“Nadia… You’ve only had two sexual experiences at the age of twenty six…”

“So?” Nadia had said.

“So once you open Pandora’s box — you can’t close it…. I love sex… That’s why do what I do… Life is too short to have bad sex.”

She never saw Simon again. Never contacted him. She met Mark soon after — and her supposed bulletproof marriage disintegrated.

“Why don’t you meet someone you like for their personality?” Nadia said to Xiao Mei.

Xiao Mei laughed, “All men have shitty personalities…”

“I don’t think so… You could really find someone nice,” Nadia said.

“Like a nice guy who wears a pig mask and tries to **** you at a circus?” Xiao Mei said dryly.

But it cut deep. Touched a wound. Nadia had never stopped loving Greg — but the man she had known had died.

Instead a monster remained… An obsession…

Nadia finished her coffee, “Hey come on… Let’s go and check out Uniqlo…”