the whole story, pt. 7

At thirty-three Nicole had her doctorate. She was living in a nice house in Cambridge, taught social work at Harvard, and often felt she valued her time alone more than anything. Her boyfriend had proposed; she turned him down and fled across the country. She never looked back. Sometimes she wondered if she was supposed to have happier times to look back on, but it never seemed to happen that way.

At thirty-five Eric had two kids through a loveless marriage, and a nonprofit organization for political advocacy and social justice. He wanted to give the kids an environment more stable than he'd had himself; when he was served with divorce papers he resigned himself to the fact that this was not an option.