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Hat | Nov 10 2001

The moment Liz leaves the apartment, Paul goes to the window to watch her exit the building two stories below. How odd to see her walk away. Odd and sad. A woman in a blue hat. Has he ever seen her alone like that? No, never: when they’re together, she’s with him.

Strike that. Sometimes he surprises her at her apartment. She doesn’t hear him come in, or thinks he’s her roommate, and so there’s a brief moment before she hears him or sees him, before she has time to react to him, when he sees her there, alone. It’s only an instant. He thinks of her as sad. That’s the only word he can think of. Sad. But is she? Sad, alone, but is she?

Sleep, too; he watches her sleep. So that’s another kind of alone.

Ah, and orgasm.