"A woman you can look at but never touch? Would you want to go home to that? Besides, Adela's pregnant. She needs me more. Trust me, I could bring Rose back a piece of garbage and she'd be over the moon."
I clamped my hand over my mouth so hard my fingers left marks, strangling every sound before it could escape. My chest felt like something was being wrung out of it, slow and merciless.
I met Leo when I was sixteen.
His family had been destroyed by a catastrophic accident. Both his parents died overnight.
The weight of it nearly crushed him. He tried to end his life more than once.
And every single time, I was the one who pulled him back from the edge.
The last time he tried, he was standing on a ledge. I climbed up and wrapped my arms around him.
I told him I would never leave him. Not ever.
When I was eighteen, Leo found out about my condition. He stayed anyway, without a moment's hesitation.
I lived with him in parking garages. I ate cold bread rolls beside him. I walked with him, step by step, from nothing to everything. Seven years.
He lived without physical intimacy the entire time, and still, he was good to me. Unfailingly good.