They ordered beef bourguignon and an expensive bottle of cabernet, something extravagant to celebrate the closing. This neighborhood’s up and coming, the realtor had said. “We bought at just the right time,” she mused, looking out the window, at the shuttered factories and loft apartments edging the leaden river. “It was a steal,” he added. She tensed. By the time dessert arrived, she couldn’t stop imagining the child who had left purple crayon marks on the wall they would soon paint eggshell white, or resenting the waiter who dropped off the bill before she had even tasted her crème brûlée.
Photo Credit: Inga Munsinger Cotton
There’s so much packed into these few words! Social commentary on cultural gaps and inequality and the ugly side of gentrification, the guilt and conflicting perceptions that may one day divide this couple… Each reading reveals a new micro-view into the complexities of both individual relationships and the context in which they exist.
This is one tough/beautiful story.