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Then she came back here, to close up the beach house to sell, and all those plans went to hell One look at her old su, Emerson, and she turned her life inside out

We’re not close enough to confide in each other, so she never told e her life away on souy who had broken her heart once over, and sooner or later, would do it all again But none of e her uess, and on this, she wouldn’t be , but somehow, it seemed too late to tell her so We haven’t talked in months, and I see her photos online now: every update is like a gliirl I barely know They’re living in a s to open a restaurant, and Juliet takes photography classes and does the books for sht, the snapshots of the world they’re building together; nothing like the life she planned, no co future--at least that’s what I told hts

But she has love The kind you’ve never felt before The kind you never will

The love you don’t deserve

I run on, circling the neighborhood and looping back down the road towards the house I pushmy body until blood pounds inout with surrender I reach the house and stu on the front lawn

My friends ask ure with envy, and I laugh it off, like it’s nothing at all, but the truth is, I kill myself to keep those extra five pounds off my hips It’s work, all of it Like the hours I spend in the salon, getting hts touched up everybefore I leave the house The hours I spend shopping, building the wardrobe that will make women look at me with envy and my partner look at me with pride

What else could you have done with all that ti on the perfect s you’re not?

I shiver, wishing the whispers would stay back, pushed out of my mind like I’ve kept them all these years I’, a crescendo that has beconore, even before Alexander raised his hand and broke the gates wide open, shattering ood

Garrett has already left for work, so I head back upstairs and retrieve ain Alexander has called, three times now, but I’ve left his voicehhalf a dozen ties about lunch plans and all the appoint to knohere I am and why I’ve disappeared

Spa retreat! I text thees and manicures, bliss!

I look around the old beach house and try to iine their faces if they knehere I really was No, I don’t have to iine: it’s the look I’ve worn on ets e the subject, abrupt, not even wanting to think about this place for a second