"Finding that special anyone can seem so romantic when you’re younger. When you’re older, you look back on the most “romantic” times in your life—falling in love with this or that dipshit—and they don’t seem that romantic at all. But the times when you were single? Those were the truly romantic times! Not when you flirted with this or that stranger or put something in your mouth that didn’t belong there. No. When you painted the dining room in your rented apartment that excellent turquoise shade, or when you spent all weekend reading Wallace Stegner’s Angle of Repose just because you felt like it, or when you threw a dinner party and invited 10 people who didn’t know each other and made lasagna that was delicious and everyone got drunk and played the version of Celebrity where you use less and less words, and your friend Steve pantomiming Dodi Fayed has been emblazoned on your brain ever since."
