Better this way. A clean breakup is best. Who was she kidding? She hurt so badly she hardly ate or slept. She felt so disconnected with the world most mornings she didn’t want to get out of bed. But she did get up and go about her daily routine. She put on a good front so nobody would notice she was miserable or that she missed Ben so terribly. She often wondered how she’d find the strength to go on through life without him. But she must—he obviously already had… With her parents retired and living in New Mexico, her best friends Stephanie in San Francisco, Jen in NYC and Laura in Boston, she felt all alone. Perhaps she should join Laura and her family for the school break. Laura had been so insistent that she should go but she wasn’t really in the mood to socialize. She’d visit her some other time. Soon. “Julia, talk to me, honey. What’s making you so unhappy?” Her students had left ten minutes before and she was still daydreaming in her classroom. Tears flooded her eyes, her lips quivered.
