Jim’s visit got me thinking, a real rarity. I’d spent years of my life getting educated—college, graduate school, those audio guides at the art museums—and now I was a teacher myself, but I still didn’t really believe in it, at least not in the visceral way that some people believe in Jesus or supply-side economics. The pursuit of unavailable women was the closest I could get to a life’s passion.

In the afternoon I attempted to assemble an Adirondack chair I’d ordered from Amazon. There weren’t too many pieces—it looked like you could just jam the joints into the shape of a chair and be set. You couldn’t. After half an hour I was covered in sweat and my good leg had cramped from the ridiculous position I’d contorted myself into. I left the shit in a pile and forgot about it until Chloe sauntered in the next morning wearing a sundress.

“Bad week,” she said. “I wish someone would just pay me to be myself.”

“I would if I wasn’t so damn broke,” I said.

“Jim talk to you?”

“He was concerned that I not get the wrong idea,” I said. “Which I respect.”

“I thought I could count on you to think independently.” She knelt down in front of the couch so that we were eye to eye. “I’m pretty bored with things.”

“Flattering as that is…” I said.

“Don’t tell me you’re not that kind of guy,” Chloe said.

“I’m not a kind of guy,” I said. “I’m a unique fucking snowflake.”

“I just mean I don’t think you’re the type of guy who gets someone’s interest up and just leaves them hanging.”

She leaned over and kissed me.

“See?” she said.

“Yep,” I said.

She kissed me again and then stood and straightened her back. She stared at the mess of would-be chair next to the couch.

“My pop was an accountant,” I said. “It’s not my fault I’m useless.”

“This came out of a box,” she said. “It has, like, five pieces. I’ll just do it now.”

“I thought we were doing something else,” I said.

“We are,” she said. “You’ll appreciate this more later.”

She knelt down over the wooden planks and started fitting them together without looking at the directions. Her hair was loose and hung down straight over her face when she bent over. When I caught a glimpse of her green eyes they were narrowed with focus, and she licked her lips as she worked. She was done in fifteen minutes and the chair looked goddamn perfect.

“Now take it apart for me and do it again blindfolded,” I said.

“Greedy,” she said, and left.