A thousand miles away

Fidelity, honesty, and commitment among the unfaithful.

Liza asked how my long-distance relationships evolve from tawdry to something more. The answer, it turns out, is slowly, unevenly, and with a certain melancholy.

I tell her what I want; she gives it to me. Thousands of miles away.

A little homework assignment for my date.

A evening out, planned in detail — for someone I won’t be joining.

She does as I ask. And then she says the thing that makes a tentative dom go weak in the knees.

A thousand miles away, she said good morning.

Literally. We have never met. I begin many days by asking her to send me a picture. Left to her own devices, she would send crude, nude, spread shots. I’ve taught her to see the beauty in (or trained her…