Summary

In “Everything I Knew About Love at Twenty-One”, the author unpacks her evolving relationship with love in her early twenties. Alderton thought that “you [have to] keep [men] interested” or they would move on to someone else (78). She believed that good friends would prioritize friendship before their boyfriend and dreaming about future love affairs could help cure insomnia.

In “Gooseberry Fool: My Life as a Third Wheel,” Alderton recalls a train ride that changed her life. When the train was delayed, she began talking to the boy seated across from her, Hector, and envisioned their conversation following the plot of a movie like Before Sunrise or Some Like It Hot. Two years later, she bumped into Hector at a bar, and they began sleeping together. One morning, she wandered into the kitchen, naked, and...