Kenji languished for a moment in the front seat of his truck, absentmindedly raking his fingers through the dense mass of his hair. Reaching under the dark recesses of the driver seat, he groped about until he felt the cool metal of his sunglasses. A wide pearly smile spread in victory across his face as he pulled them from their hiding spot and placed the sunglasses on his face. Popping the sun visor down, Kenji’s grin grew bigger as he assessed his reflection. “Looking good, my guy,” he said to himself as he opened the driver's side door while grabbing his repurposed gym bag packed with a towel, sunscreen, and beer. The summer pool party was an annual tradition of Kenji and his friends, gathering together to drink, carouse, and generally have a great time together as they shared occasionally fabricated renditions of their ongoing summer exploits. Kenji’s friend Dan would regale the men with tales of his many bedded conquests while Amari would expound on his latest personal records
You wouldn’t normally buy such a frivolous shirt, but the image of a cartoon pig gleefully embracing an ice cream cone catches your eye. You think it’s cute, and the more you look at it, the more you are enthralled by the pink shirt. You take it to the fitting room. It fits you like a glove, as if it were tailored to your exact contours. You take a photo. Best any man has looked in a pig shirt. As you leave the store, all you can think of is the shirt. You enter a different store and grab the first shirt you can find. You vanish into the fitting room and switch into the pig shirt. You feel like more than the mere $7 you spared for this ridiculous addition to your wardrobe. You stop by your favorite fast food place and order your usual. The first bite however does not provide its usual little pop of pleasure. Instead, it sends you into ecstasies you didn’t know were possible from something as commonplace as food. What was different about this meal, one you had enjoyed