When Love Becomes a Thing of the Past

My boyfriend’s flirtatious admirer was holding a cookie in her mouth and wanted to play the cookie-biting game with him. Everyone was watching, waiting for me to fight back. In the past, I would have argued, made a scene, grabbed her by the hair, and thrown her out. But now, I was used to it. When she saw that I wasn’t reacting, she went further and announced that she and my boyfriend had already kissed while practicing for an exam. I set down the sunflower seeds in my hand and said, “Why don’t you two show us how it’s done? We could all learn something.”