business contracts for emotions

i try to talk my friend J J

out of

getting married.

i hear silence on the other end of

the line.

it sounds like

there's a gun

to his head.

but i love her, he says.

her mother and family want it.

they say

i'm getting the milk

free from the cow.

oh my, i let out.

we've been together for five

years now.

she says that next year

she'll get a job.

she promises

no more tattoos.

her 18 year old meth head

daughter

lives with us.

i feel responsible for them.

why sign a business contract

for an emotion?

i ask him.

trust me.

things change.

i hear him, grind his teeth,

as his

fiancé tells him to hang up.

hang up right

now, she says.

don't listen to him.