I didn’t pay much attention to the two women who sat near me at dinner. They weren’t eating anything, but they sat talking quietly in the dining room. It was a slow night, so the fast food restaurant was almost empty.
One of the women stood — almost nervously — as a man came in to join them. He had the air of someone who liked to give orders and who thought he should be obeyed. It wasn’t a friendly meeting.
“Why is she here?” the man hissed angrily to the woman who was still seated.
“Holly asked me to come so she wouldn’t be alone,“ the standing woman replied in a tone that made it sound as though she was trying to avoid trouble.
The man sat at the table and I couldn’t hear exactly where the conversation went at first. The seated woman pulled some papers out from a manilla envelope. She pushed the documents toward the man without much explanation.
Everything suddenly clicked. Holly and the angry man were starting to go through a divorce.

It’s odd how ‘choice’ can mean ‘no choice’ with the state involved
As sowing comes before reaping, culture comes before politics
What if writing from the ‘AI me’ sounds just like I’d written it?
We learn lessons as we mature, but it’s usually too late by then
Silly controversy over Cadillac ad reminds us we want different things
‘Free money for everybody’? Is it smart for principled libertarians?
Step in the right direction: U.S. ad group bans cosmetic photoshopping
Need for certainty is an internal tyranny that leads to the wrong path
So you’ve rescued dogs and cats, but how about a baby elephant?