What an eye for detail!

Ivan was a tall, attractive boy who had been a varsity athlete. He had attended an Ivy League university, and was presently a quant. But Ivan’s existence was endlessly touching to me because despite these qualifiers, not a single person seemed to like or respect him, on account of his world-historical rizzlessness. He was tormented by the fact that he had a hot Eastern European mother, which classmates would tease him for, but otherwise had no traits. His father was an inventor, but of some kind of indoor plant. He titled Spotify playlists things like “Various good songs.

Also, this story is particularly well-structured because it is plotless, but you sense from the beginning that things somehow haven’t worked out between the narrator and Celia.

This story has the first introduction of the narrator’s husband! (Unless I missed a mention in an earlier story—yes I am parasocially attached to the presumably-somewhat-fictionalized overlocked narrator).