Christine stared at her own distorted reflection in the window. When she'd woken up that morning feeling so 'content' she'd been lying to herself. Christine wasn't happy with things the way they were. Not really. She tried to think back to when she'd ever truly been happy and came up empty.

She'd been a lonely kid growing up. Her parents were both very rational, emotionally distant people. When Christine came home with skinned knees, they'd nod absently and hand her a band-aid. When she cried because her first boyfriend had broken her heart, her mother's big piece of advice was 'get over it.'

For a time, Christine had her older...