When Your Greatest Romance Is a Friendship

Victor Lodato wrote about his friendship with a woman named Austin.

Later, crossing the road back to my Craigslist sublet, I wondered what I was doing. I reminded myself of my plan: hiding out, staying in the dream of the book. I wasn’t here to socialize. After years of work on a single project, I was in the final stretch. I could finish a draft in a few months and head back home.

Besides, if I wanted a friend during my retreat, I would find someone my age to throw back beers with. Gin and tonics with an old lady in her garden? That wasn’t in the plan.

But there I was the next weekend having dinner with her, and then it was every weekend. Sometimes we went out to a restaurant or hiked in the mountains. Austin’s older friends seemed confused.

What a completely touching and charming story. In my adult life, most of my friendships have been with the same kind of people, but that’s changed in the past few years, and it’s made my life better.

• Victor Lodato