Lifetime, she has not had many. There were enough between her mom and stepdad growing up for her to arrange a lifetime of avoiding them. This is in no way meant to imply that she has lived a life free of conflict. It is meant to indicate that as necessary, she was prepared to wait for a partner of her exact type and kind, or to move to another city to avoid dealing with it.
Notable arguments include:
1.Screaming at mom and stepdad in front of a sushi restaurant on Broadway about her not having health insurance (they were right, ish)
2.Screaming at a close girlfriend in front of a boutique on Columbus and 72nd Street (reason not remembered)
3.Screaming at a long-ago boyfriend in front of her building on Oakley and Erie in Chicago (reason not remembered)
4.Screaming at husband, in the second shitty therapist’s office, and almost screaming at the shitty therapist as well (reason having something to do with money)
There is an argument with her bud. It begins with a news story and ends with insults. Her bud says she lives in fantasy. You’re being like Kellyanne Conway, he says. You’re a fucking asshole, she says. She has never in her life said these words out loud to another human. She hears them as they come out of her mouth, quickly losing traction and volume on the way; her brain is on a delay, knows only as the words are on their way out that they should not be said. The regret happens while the words are being said. She takes the dog to the park and calls a friend. He’s obviously going to have to move out, she tells the friend, who talks her through it, makes her laugh, and tells her to go home and make amends. Everything will be fine. You’ve been friends for thirty years. It’s a good hour before she returns to the apartment, but by then she is eager to apologize. Unfortunately, her bud has also gone out, so she’s about to text him when she finds an apologetic Post-it note on the counter with a heart and a smiley face and I know you didn’t mean what you said and I love you. They hug when he comes home and she tells him she never fights with anyone and he laughs and tells her that wasn’t a fight, that was just a lively dinner conversation at his family’s house growing up. She wonders now if a few more lively conversations with her husband might have helped.