We stood in silence for several painful minutes, each avoiding the other’s eyes, slowly boiling alive in the uncomfortable heat of all that had happened between us these past months. The childhood love we’d once shared had been simple and pure. We’d chased each other in the forests, picked wild berries and swam naked in the sea, teased each other and imagined the great journeys we might take together one day. I wanted more than anything to get back to that effortless joy, but the harder I reached for it, the further it seemed to float away, a shrinking point on the sunset horizon. If I didn’t
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