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impressionism, and how board games these days were catering to intellectualism. And what did my friends do the second he mentioned a great game that was based on those very concepts? Ohh and ahh and say they want to play it.
    So here we are, drinking wine, playing a board game, and the world hasn’t imploded. Ingrid is especially enjoying it. Ingrid. Who once told me that the problem with men today was that they refused to grow up. That she wasn’t going for childish pursuits. Still, here she is playing a game and loving it.
    I know. You’re thinking why is she breaking up with him over this? I’ll tell you why. Because I asked him not to. He didn’t know how my friends were going to react. He could have embarrassed the life out of me. Made me look silly. Made them think he wasn’t good enough for me. He didn’t respect my request, and just because it all worked out doesn’t matter. It’s what could have happened. There’s a reason why I only share certain parts of my life with my friends. I don’t want to be judged. And Evan—it seems he doesn’t care at all.
    How can you live your life that way? Without a care?
    It’s infuriating. How am I supposed to let him meet my parents if I can’t trust him to adhere to some simple ground rules. There are things you don’t talk about around the Carew dinner table. You only talk about politics if you are in support of the New Democrats and hate the Conservatives. You only talk about religion if you’re willing to stomach the idea that the sexual abuse scandals were just an anomaly and there’s nothing wrong with the Catholic Church. You don’t talk about mundane topics like TV or movies (which sucks because I have so much to say about those topics!). And you must be willing to concede that if Paul Simon’s Graceland isn’t the best record in the history of life, then it’s at least on your top three.
    I can’t go an evening not knowing if Evan is going to try to get my parents into a rousing game of Settlers of Catan, or regale them with a play-by-play of the dice rolls in his latest D&D raid.
    Clearly, the only thing I can do is break up with him. I mean, it’s bound to happen eventually, right? Save myself the heart break of him doing it three months from now. Now, I just need to figure out how to do it.
    “He’s amazing,” Ingrid whispers to me as she gets up to go get more wine. “Keeper material for sure.”
    What? We need to have a serious chat.
    I haul her into the living room the first chance I get.
    “I didn’t know men like that existed in this city,” she says the second I corner her. “Hot as Hades, smart but doesn’t show off, and fun. I told you all those years of dating snots and snobs would be a waste of time. Finally, you’ve found a real man. Oh, I’d love to see him and Gregory in the same room. Evan would make mincemeat of him.”
    “I thought you liked Greg?”
    I’d liked Greg. Until he broke up with me when I won the fellowship he’d thought he deserved more than me. Yes, I have been in a relationship with a man who thought I owed it to him to concede a well-earned academic fellowship because he’d had more struggles in life than me. By struggles, he meant it had taken him more time to write his dissertation because he’d had to travel to Rome and navigate the Vatican archives.
    “He was certainly the less nerdy of your boyfriends, sure. But he was still a stuffy know-it-all.”
    Nerdy? My boyfriends weren’t nerdy.
    “Come on, Jillian. You know they were nerds. Bruce wore an actual pocket protector. And a bow tie.”
    “He wasn’t nerdy. That was his look.”
    “Sit down, sweetie.”
    God, I hate it when she gets that condescending tone. And she’s patting the sofa.
    “Jilly, you know I love you. And hey, you’ve had a spectacular run of guys. More than I could ever muster. But you’ve always attracted the geekiest of geeks. Now you’ve got a real man here. He’s social. He’s fun to be around. And judging by