Jan, how could you? We shared our innermost secrets, and our darkest fears.
The tears stream down my face, I don’t even bother brushing them away. My nose runs like a spigot; it’s raw and cracked from excessive wiping (first with tissues – and when I ran out of tissues, shirt sleeves – and then an old parking ticket I’d found in my glove box).

Never again! And this time I mean it! I love Jan so much. If she asked me, I would have ripped my heart out, and served it with a sprig of parsley and a medley of summer root vegetables.
And only to have her send it back for being overdone and mushy! Oh the agony! Oh the brutal, twisting, torture!

My heart will regrow and regenerate. It will sprout new veins and arteries, and the muscles will toughen up over scar tissue. One day, it’ll be strong enough to handle another. Someone that will appreciate the beauty of a battle-scarred hide. But even if I love again, it’ll never be the same.

Never again… Really…

And then I met Leila and that changes everything…