I think now we are simply strangers with some memories.

After two decades there she was, in front of him, almost within touching distance, not faded like in his dreams, but bright and clear and vividly real, looking comfortably, almost defiantly, the same as she always had and then everything she had never been.

Our demons are friends,

Seeing him again had been a gut punch.

You still give me butterflies.

Stop saying hurt.’ She turned on him; the wounded animal finally breaking free. ‘You fall over on the pavement, that hurts; you stub your toe, that hurts; you trap your finger in a car door, shit, that hurts. You did not hurt me. James. It was like you took a razor and pressed down hard in the tenderest place.

In front of him stood the woman of his dreams, giving him one last chance to kiss her.Reason didn’t stand a chance.

She wasn’t sure if she even needed him anymore and the thought made her sad. In consolation, she offered him a kind smile and reached for his dependable hand.

She felt damned. As though she were marching to her death. She felt like had been sentenced. And yet she felt eerily free.