I was 19 – he was six years older and had always said I would outgrow him, something I naively denied – I'd only had one previous, month-long relationship with a quivering boy who cooed like a pigeon when he talked, and used Latin terms to talk about sex.
Yet the impression that someone had been there was so powerful, so strong, that it wasn't something I could deny.
Three days later, driving my son to school, he remarked, "Dad, do you smell something funny in the car?" I denied it and thought it might be the humid air causing the musty smell in the car.
"Before I let them take something from me, I deny it from myself," he said.
That is something I have not denied". The man who spoke these words was Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan charged with the recruitment and allocation of manpower.
So, yeah, I think we naturally codeshift and that's something I can't deny I do, but the version of me … " She finishes by waving at herself and tilting her head as if to say, "Yes, this is me" and "No, it's not a grand act".
It took something I couldn't deny, like breaking the heart of the woman I supposedly loved, to get me to look at my emotional and psychological health.
That's not something I'm going to deny.
Arsenal's conserved performance was attributed to their upcoming European Cup match, something Graham categorically denied: "I'm not even thinking about next Wednesday".
Instead of saying, "I was rejected by my top college," say something like, "I was denied acceptance".
"But if he wants and deserves something, I don't want to deny him on the basis of it being gender-inappropriate".
