A Little Excerpt

November 2022

“Hello, is this Kevin?” A strange number came up as a text message on Kevin Maggliardi’s phone.
“Yes, who is this?” Kevin texted back, 30 minutes later.
“Linda Matmatuan. We dated a few years ago, and I dropped the ball on you. I understand if you don’t ever respond to this message, but I truly wanted to apologize for what I did to you. Totally inexcusable, but I was in a very bad place emotionally, and I couldn’t commit to a relationship.”
“Oh, yeah it’s fine. I’m dating someone else now.”
“I actually have a young daughter now, and that really changed my outlook on life. I’m also engaged, and we live in Somerville. I wanted to see if you would be interested in being friends again. I really liked you, but I was too afraid to commit to something serious at that time. Michelle and I also still talk,” Linda texted back.
“I still talk to Michelle sometimes, and yeah that’s fine,” Kevin texted back.
“Want to meet up through video chat some time?”
“Yeah, sure. Can I bring my girlfriend with me?”
“Yeah, of course. My friends and I were gonna do a group chat tomorrow evening if you wanna join.”
“Sure.”