For two years he sent me photos of his lecture halls and his exam stress. Then a blown transformer asked one question his story couldn't survive.

She tilted her phone away every time I walked in. Then, from two thousand miles away, she sent the text that explained everything.

Two cities apart, his daily videos of the cat were the only thing keeping us close. Then one of them showed me something he hadn't meant to film.

I cut my sleep in half for two years so I'd always be awake for her mornings. She used every hour I was asleep to build a life I wasn't in.

I dragged the first woman out by her hair. The second one I invited shopping, smiling the whole drive there.

He stuttered since childhood, so the weekly therapy appointments made sense. Then I matched the dates on our bank statement to a map.