At first it felt harmless. Casual. Friendly. He was gentle—exactly the way he had always been. Somehow that hurt even more. I kept waiting for the moment everything would change. The flirting. The betrayal.
It arrived slowly.
A compliment here. A thoughtful question there. Nothing overt, but enough to make my stomach knot.
It felt like watching my entire life split apart from the inside.
Twenty minutes went by.
