'The Way Around Him' by Melissa Flores Anderson

• Mute the notifications on your phone
• Actually, mute him so you don’t have to see what he’s liking or not liking (he’s not liking you anymore)
• Delete the playlist he made for you
• Delete the playlist you made for him
• Turn the radio up and listen to angry girl music
• Turn left instead of right out of the driveway, to avoid the park where you sat in your car when he called you for the first time
• Turn left again, to avoid that parking lot where you first met in person.
• Turn left again, to avoid the street where he told you he couldn’t do this anymore, that it wasn’t in his nature
• Turn left again, to be back in the place you started
• Turn right out of your driveway, drive by the park, the parking lot, the street
• Get on 101 South for 20 miles
• Take 156 east for 5 miles, slowing to 50 miles an hour behind a tractor
• Take 1 South for 10 miles
• Exit Reservation Road and drive around the road barricade to park in the lot that overlooks the Marina Dunes
• Stare at the ocean for 20 minutes
• Remember, it is vast and wild, and unpredictable, like love
• Get back in your car and drive up the road five more minutes, where there is someone new who laughs with you every day