Chapter Twenty-Five: The Past

Hadley

I hear the front door to his apartment slam, and my hands shake. I've never had the kind of reaction I have to Trick, to anyone else. It's like a current flowing through both of our bodies, an electrical jolt that would make my heart start beating again if it stopped. Nervousness courses through my body, and I try to examine why I'm nervous.

Because he's going to be honest with me.

Because I'm going to be honest with him.

I haven't opened myself up to a person in a long time. The last person I opened up to tried to use anything I ever told him to hurt me in the divorce proceedings. My brain knows that's the kind of man my ex was, but the irrational part cautions me against opening up to anyone else ever again. Even though it's lonely, it's easier that way; no one to hurt you in the long run.

But in the last year, I've started to feel the loneliness. Not all day, and not even every day, but it's there, in the back of my mind. It's there when I want to watch a non-kid