“Her eyes flutter up to meet mine.“Are you hungry?”she asks.Am I ever.”

“So let's hear another one of your irrational fears. Mia grasped me by the arms and pulled herself in to my chest, like she was burrowing her body into mine. "I'm scared of losing you," she said in the faintest of voices." I pushed her away so I could see her face and kissed the top of her forehead. "I said 'irrational' fears. Because that's not gonna happen.”

“It was selfish what I asked her to do, even if it wound up being the most unselfish thing I've ever done.”

“All I wanted was for you to be okay. All I wanted was to help you. I would've done anything."She drops her chin to her chest. "Yes, I know. You wanted to rescue me.""Damn, Mia. You say that like it's a bad thing.”

“I’m scared of losing you,” she said in the faintest of voices.I pushed her away so I could see her face and kissed the top of her forehead. “I said ‘irrational’fears. Because that’s not gonna happen.”

“She looks at me, square in the eye. Taking aim. And then she pulls the trigger. “Because I hated you.”The wind, the noise, it all just goes quiet for a second, and I’m left with a dull ringing in my ear, like after a show, like after a heart monitor goes to flatline.“Hated me? Why?”“You made me stay.” She says it quietly, and it almost gets lost in the wind and the traffic and I’m not sure I heard her. But then she repeats it louder this time. “You made me stay!”And there it is. A hollow blown through my heart, confirming what some part of me has always known.She knows.”

“Little pinpricks fire-cracker up and down my body. Just calm down, I tell myself. You just make her nervous showing up all out of the blue like that. Still, I'm flattered that I matter-- even if it's just enough to scare her.”