ALESSIA
Christmas morning arrived the way the best mornings do — without announcement, without the performance of itself, simply present when I opened my eyes and looked at the light coming through Logan's old curtains and understood that something had shifted in the quality of the day.
I lay still for a moment and took inventory.
Nine days ago I had been standing at an altar in a backup dress watching a man I had spent three years loving choose someone else in the gown I had made with my own hands. Eight days ago I had been in this apartment for the first time in three years, shaking in a hallway while Jasper handed me tea and Ryker looked at me like I was something he had been afraid to find. Seven days ago Logan had cut my hair and I had looked in a mirror and found someone who was n
