I cried until exhaustion hollowed me out.
Not graceful tears either.
Ugly ones.
The kind pulled from somewhere deep and raw and exhausted.
And Damien stayed through all of it.
Rain soaked through his black coat while my hands twisted tightly in the front of his shirt, but he never once loosened his hold on me. Never once looked uncomfortable with my grief. He just stood there in the wreckage of my old life holding me like the world would have to kill him first to pull me away.
That should not have felt as safe as it did.
Eventually my breathing steadied enough that embarrassment started creeping in.
I stepped back first, wiping angrily at my face.
“Sorry.”
Damien’s expression darkened instantly.
“Don’t apologize for that.”
“I’m literally crying all over you.”
“I don’t care.”
