5
I hadn’t heard from Leah in over a year.
Not since she walked out of our apartment with tears in her eyes and a suitcase half-zipped, saying she couldn’t “keep waiting for me to figure it out.” She needed answers. I was still asking questions.
Now here she was, standing in the hallway of my haunted new life.
“Surprise,” she said, holding up a six-pack of cider like a peace offering. “I was in the neighborhood.”
She wasn’t. Leah lived forty minutes across town, and I knew damn well she didn’t just happen to be near my building. She’d probably been checking my socials, watching me pop back up after going silent post-move, wondering if there was still room in my life for her.
And God help me, some part of me hoped there was.
I stepped aside and let her in.
Her boots clunked on the h
