This Is How You Lose Her

In “Flaca,” Yunior “dates” a skinny girl named Veronica, whom he calls Flaca. He addresses her, “You were whitetrash from outside Paterson and it showed in your no-fashion-sense and you’d dated n*****s a lot” (82). Veronica and Yunior are in the same James Joyce class in college. She offers him a ride three times before he accepts. He only calls her when he has no one else, and she offers to come over. This situation goes on for two years. Yunior says of Veronica: “You’re the only person I ever met who can stand a bookstore as long as I can. A smarty-pants, the kind you don’t find every day” (83). The two go to a New Jersey recreation area called Spruce Run twice. He watches her in the water. Later, she whispers “I love you,” and soon after they never speak again. Yunior recalls, “You whispered my full name and we fell asleep in each other’s arms and I remember how the next morning you were gone, completely gone, and nothing in my bed or the house could have proven otherwise” (87).