The Announcement

Her engagement announcement arrived this morning. He retells the story so that it came like a calling card placed on an elephant foot umbrella stand in his hallway. De gustibus non est disputandum.

Their stories were once intertwined.
Then she told him he was not practical.
He stopped listening.
If things were different, she said.
He thought: How strange this moment of nothing to say.
Their stories once intertwined became parallel

With the announcement arrived an invitation to a party. It was not an engagement party but rather another small-town event the story of which her celebration would retell. He decides not to go. De gustibus non est disputandum.