But I tended not to date men who ever showed up for me.

I tucked the Camel coupon from his cigarette pack into my pocket. A souvenir of the moment where he said maybe. I would hold on to his maybe for as long as it would take,...

surround yourself with people who are better than you,” and I was now living that mantra.

On day one of the drive, I saw my first dome sky. The world was so flat that I could see the level horizon all around me and the sky looked like a dome. Skies...

I used to cover my windows in heavy curtains, never drawn. Now I danced in the sunlight on my hardwood floors.

I told him I had once lost everything I had, too, and that I think that can be God’s way of building walls around us to force us to look up at Him.

I didn’t answer. We were not buddies. We could not chat about the proximity of our offices, or football, or forgiveness.

I decided I would fill the emptiness in me with God and with paint.

I threw his framed picture off my balcony just to hear my heart break.

And so I just kept writing to myself.

I wrote. I wrote all the things I couldn’t say to him. I wrote about how much I believed in us. I wrote about how much I trusted God. I wrote that I was praying...

I am ready, I am ready, I am fine. I am fine, I am fine, I am fine.” I played it again. I was not fine.

We kissed each other until we were too tired to keep going. I could still feel him holding back. It was my penance for what I had done to him. All I could do was...

I was girly and friendly and my family life was happy but many days I felt like I was on the inside what Chase was on the outside. I always believed I was a happy...

Unfortunately, he still hadn’t asked for my number, or a date, or my hand in marriage, and my drink was getting low.

I thought about how the past can become so small. An entire day, 24 separate, heavy hours, becomes the size of a tiny brown leaf falling from a tree. Before you know it, a whole...

If I get that girl’s number I will never ask another girl for her number again.

You have not failed completely.” Stamp, stamp.

It was strange walking through the empty apartment. My battered purple room was gone, Brittany’s bruised blue was gone. Two coats covered everything. It was like none of it had ever happened.

Go for it, my heart said, my heart always said.

That’s how it felt – that the loss of him had a life of its own. I lived with it as I could have lived with him. Some nights it was quiet and sometimes it...