I watched Florian as he got out of the car, my mind going back to that one incident that year. I remember just how pissed florian had looked the night I had announced that I had a crush in Matt, who was the geeky science genius I was paired with for group work in high school, and how I wanted to go on what could have passed as a beach date with him and a few others.

It felt crazy to me now how I could have missed Florian's possessiveness then, but I was genuinely curious and far too afraid to let myself build castles in the air.

When I...