DOMENICO

My lungs locked. My eyes stung. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even blink.

I kept telling myself she didn’t mean it.

“She didn’t mean what she said,” I told myself. Repeating the words in my head over and over again like a fucking mantra. “She couldn’t… she wouldn’t know how much it would hurt me.”

It’s just words. Just meaningless words.

“I’m not… not just that,” I repeated, over and over. “It doesn’t mean what it sounded like. I know she didn’t mean it.”

But it still hurts. Damn it, it still hurts.

When I stepped toward her, she stepped back like I was something she needed to escape from....