While I was not entirely satisfied with the circumstances of my existence, I felt like the possibility of improvement still existed. That I could make happiness happen.

And that is one of the problems of your generation. All sex. No romance. No love.

Judy shook her head when she saw me the next day, dressed in the same clothes I had worn to work the day before. “We used to call that the walk of shame,” she said.

I was brand-new in San Francisco, right out of college, and I thought it was thrilling, a guy buying me a drink. I didn’t think, how tacky, this creep is buying me a drink. I thought, how amazing, I put on lipstick and a short skirt and look what can happen.