Although we’ve never discussed it, I know some part of her thinks the approach I took to solving the issues we were facing in college was a result of my lack of faith in her abilities as a teammate, but that wasn’t it at all. I knew she could solve her own problems—hell, with how cool and level-headed she always was, I knew she could solve mine too—but I didn’t want her to have to. I wanted to give her relief, the kind of comfort that could only be found in partnerships based on trust and a mutual investment in the shared outcome. What I’d given her instead was over a decade of heartache and a
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