The Girlfriend's Guide to the Gods

January 26, 2020 1:48 PM

This is the first myth: that your boyfriend from when you were fifteen will come and get you out of hell. He might come, but he won’t get you. You will never have an interesting conversation with him, though his haircut will suggest that he should be interesting.

A story at tor.com, by Maria Dahvana Headley

posted by Ragged Richard (13 comments total)

"[H]ello heart, hello hope, this is how motherfucking goddesses of love get made. Out of smashed things and blasted things and things burnt and blistered, out of old bad knowledge and out of making your way through the holy impossible."
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:45 PM on January 26, 2020 [9 favorites]

"Zeus will still have an AOL account." I love this story.
posted by Cocodrillo at 3:46 PM on January 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

I want so badly to share this story, and I’ve been thinking through the people I know that I could send them a link to it, and then I realized, aside from one person, the people I’d want to share this story are pretty much the people here.

The one person, oddly enough, is a good friend of mine who was my girlfriend in high school for a brief time, and as much as I want to send her the link, I’m terrified which of the shitty men in the story she’ll think I most closely map to.
posted by Ghidorah at 4:46 PM on January 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
posted by supermedusa at 5:04 PM on January 26, 2020

Thanks, OP! I enjoyed this story so much.
posted by Bella Donna at 5:28 PM on January 26, 2020

Fuck. Getting older. Lives lived. Chapters opened and closed. Middle age is when enough unexplainable shit has happened to you that you've truly lost the narrative thread.

I don't know if I believe it, but I'll raise this tumbler of gin on ice to the idea of Aphrodite and morning.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:13 PM on January 26, 2020 [10 favorites]

WHAT ON EARTH

this is the best story???? Holy all the things
posted by purpleclover at 11:40 PM on January 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Relatable. To the point of sobbing openly on the tube.
posted by freya_lamb at 1:13 AM on January 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

This is amazing -- a very lovely gut punch to start my week out. Thank you so much for posting.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 5:00 AM on January 27, 2020

“You will be missing information” - ain’t that the truth. But god help me, I still love Bukowski.

This was an amazing way to start the last, bleary week of January. Thank you for posting it!
posted by lyssabee at 6:06 AM on January 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

So good. Thank you.
posted by YoungStencil at 10:58 AM on January 27, 2020

Awesome story. Tor.com publish so much good free short SF!
posted by billsaysthis at 11:08 AM on January 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

This was amazing. Thanks so much.
posted by 2soxy4mypuppet at 5:00 PM on January 27, 2020