There Was No Seat for Me at the Luxury Restaurant. By Dessert, They Regretted It

Portland had the clean, scrubbed appearance of a city that has been given a thorough rain and is now trying to make a good impression. I walked down the back stairs from my apartment to the bookstore, key cold in my hand, and opened the door into the smell of paper and ink and the faint ghost of yesterday’s coffee — the smell of a place I had built continue reading …