LEFT AT MY LOWEST, LOVED AT MY BEST

ICA'

on. Seeing her again felt like reconnecting with the past our school days, the b

She had seemed surprised, even shocked. Maybe it was just the time apart, or maybe it was so

iving abroad for so long, and the shock of seeing him for the firs

cker of recognition in her eyes. She quickly masked it, exchanging pleasantries

had said, hoping we could

ation in her eyes. I dismissed

his phone. I sat next to him. "Do you know Gra

adable. "No, I don't think so

since school. She missed our weddin

quickly returning to his phone. I wasn't bothe

sting my head on his shoulder. "I missed y

one aside and wrapping an a

Grace had looked at him, and the way he had brushe

She hadn't spoken to him directly, but she overheard him talking with his friends, making it clear he wa

essica, but was he really someone who could be trusted? She tho

he club. "Do you remember a guy named Desmond?" sh

ember him. He used to talk a lot about the kind of woman

The man she had overheard at the club wasn't someone who seemed interest

love, so happy. If she said something now, it would seem like jealo

sit the club again, hoping someone t

the table. He glanced at it before picki

e right back," he

oked at earlier. I smiled at the pictures of us in school-young, carefree, full o

me at this time," he whi

the album tightly.

ression neutral. "It was just work," he s

incts told me to be cautious,

help but feel a distance between us. It wasn't that he was cold or uninterested; it was more like he was a stranger in my own house.

just going through the moti

early caught off guar

e just moving through life without really c

s expression unreadable. "You're

ocused on building a life with him that I never took

pportunities, and by the time she returned from her t

sy, realizing he wasn't the man Jessica believed him to be-he was someone

wouldn't be easy. The truth was painful