I still remember the shaking hands. The freckles turning red under the sun. I remember every nervous etch in her face. She was beautiful. She was my sin. Temptation had never been so kind as her apologetic voice.

She was lost when I found her, clutching her purse nervously as if anyone might snatch it. A runaway. The one I just happened to bump into. And like any good Shepard, I led the lamb into safer ground. I fed her, cared for her, but for reasons unpronounced, I couldn’t let her go.

My favorite song became her laugh. I found myself hanging on her every word, listening to dazzling stories of who she used to be. The sight of her filled my very being, and I couldn’t stop it. I fell in love with a stranger.

But all I know of her now is an empty bed. An open door. Shattered glass.

The silence pressing onto me was deafening, shoving her absence against my body like gravity, dragging me further down into the reality. A coward. I would be better off without her.

A bitter end.