I walked back from the Ear Bar after work, walked across on Spring Street to the 6, and I walked by some dumb shoe store on a corner, a long narrow shoe store, and I remembered having been there years ago with A., and I remembered how smart and ornery she was, and how much I loved her, and I muttered "I love you" over and over under my drunken steaming breath until I passed the store, like you hold your breath while passing a graveyard.