said. “It was convenient. It meant you had to be brave first.”
Elise pressed her lips together.
“And today?”
“Today you were brave first again.”
She looked at me then.
I wanted to apologize until the discomfort stopped. Instead, I sat with the fact that an apology could acknowledge eight years without giving either of us those years back.
“The relationships weren’t pretend,” she said eventually.
“I know.”
“Daniel mattered. The two years with him were real.”
“So were mine.”
“I don’t want us to turn everyone else into people
