J-- stopped by my desk Thursday afternoon. I was crumpling up copy paper and shooting it into the waste basket. I keep a box of the stuff at my cubicle.

     “So,” he said, “are we still on for tomorrow?”

     Oh, no, I thought. J-- had totally slipped my mind when I accepted that invitation for sushi. Usually, I eat lunch with him on Fridays. I was so excited about hanging out with the cool crowd, I forgot who my friends really were.

     This was new territory for me. I never have problems with my friends because I like to avoid conflict. It’s a strategy, really, but here I was involved in a conflict as old as grade school.

     I crumpled paper into balls, one after anoth...

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