Friends for 16 Years. Lovers for One Night.

Modern Love

The New York Times

Nytimes, Redemption, Society & Culture, New York Times, Love, Essay, Storytelling, Loss, Nyt

4.4 • 8.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elizabeth and Jeff were best friends. They did everything together, from early-morning runs to late-night karaoke sessions. They came up with secret code names for each other and went on undercover missions in their neighborhood. They fought, and made up, and fought some more. Beneath their playful dynamic, an attraction was growing between them, but Elizabeth never wanted to risk the friendship by exploring it. Then Jeff got sick, and things changed. In this episode, the story of a once-in-a-lifetime friendship, from the very beginning to the very end. This episode is adapted from Elizabeth Laura Nelson’s 2025 essay Friends for 16 Years. Lovers for One Night. Here’s how to submit a Modern Love essay to The New York Times. Here’s how to submit a Tiny Love Story.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love now and...
0:03.1	Did you fall in love?
0:03.9	I love.
0:04.6	I was stronger than anything.
0:07.0	I feel of love.
0:07.7	Love.
0:08.2	And I love you more than anything.
0:11.2	What is love?
0:11.9	Love.
0:14.3	I like to tell Jeff all the time that we should not be friends because he was a Gemini and I'm a Scorpio and they're not compatible.
0:29.2	Elizabeth and Jeff were best friends, even though a lot of the time they annoyed the crap out of each other.
0:35.4	He loved to give me a hard time, and he loved to wind me up.
0:38.6	He loved nothing more.
0:40.1	Elizabeth would pick on Jeff for his weird haircut, his acid-washed jeans.
0:44.8	Jeff would pick on Elizabeth for believing in astrology, which he thought was nonsense.
0:49.9	My friend started calling him actually, man.
0:52.9	She had this big, itchy bite, and she said it was a spider bite.
0:56.8	And he really...
0:57.6	Actually, spiders don't bite.
1:01.1	And I was like, yes, they do.
1:02.7	Have you heard of a black widow?
1:04.2	Actually, man.
	...

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