I wake up before him and for a second I don’t remember why my chest already feels full.
Then I turn my head.
Ethan.
It hits all at once. Not gently. Just there. Sitting heavy in my ribs like it never left.
He’s asleep. Properly asleep. Not that restless half thing he used to do when his mind wouldn’t shut up. His face is softer like this. Younger, almost. Like the version of him that didn’t have to hold everything together all the time.
I stare too long.
It feels intrusive. Intimate in a way that makes my stomach twist.
This man used to be mine.
Not in a cute way. Not in a romantic sentence. In a real way. Papers. Promises. Silence. Everything.
And now I’m standing in his kitchen wearing his shirt like I didn’t leave him.
I look away first.
Coward.
I push myself out of bed quie
