About Margo, and the Carry-On

I am Margo Bellweather, forty-four, a copy editor by trade and a professional noticer of what is missing from a sentence. Eighteen months ago I was missing a husband, a spare room, and the habit of being looked at across a table. The first two I have made peace with. The third I decided to treat as a research question.

This site is the lab notebook. Each city is a small experiment in being wanted again, run with one carry-on bag, a good pair of shoes, and a rule that I may not hide behind my phone at dinner. I report the nerves honestly, including the evening I rehearsed a sentence in the hotel mirror and then said something completely different. I report the delight honestly too, because pretending attention does not please me would be bad editing.

This is not a backpacker fantasy. There are no hostels, no hangovers I am proud of, and no pretending I am twenty-four. It is romance with a sense of humor and a decent dinner reservation. Along the way I wander over to TheFriend, where AI characters like Emma and Hannah tell flirty, sensual voice confessions, and I mention them when a trip reminds me of a story. They are characters, not people, and I enjoy them exactly as that: good company for a late train.