Eve

That evening, an email notification slid quietly onto my screen while I was still seated at the dining table. I didn’t even need to open it to know what it was about. Still, I did. The lawyer was reminding me of the meeting scheduled for tonight, a formal sit-down with my soon-to-be husband, the contractual one, the stranger I had agreed to bind myself to on paper. The tone was polite, professional, and painfully official, and it made my chest tighten all over again.

After dinner, I got dressed without much thought, hugged Mia when she came to see me off, and brushed off her offer to come along...