They Laughed When Soda Was Dumped in My Lap. That Night, I Removed My Name From the Loan

the kind with delicate scrollwork along the edges and a velvet backing that felt expensive even before you saw the price tag. I’d imagined my parents opening it at their anniversary dinner, imagined my mother holding it up to the light and saying something like, “Oh, Ava, this is lovely.” I’d imagined wrong, of course. I’d been imagining wrong about continue reading …